Elementary teachers looking for lesson plans and activities for Red Riding Hood will find this post helpful. It includes resource recommendations, free teaching ideas, and information about the book. You’ll have everything you need to deliver engaging interactive read aloud lessons based on this story.
With themes of compassion, courage and advocacy, this Red Riding Hood picture book by James Marshall is a favorite in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms. It will be a big hit in your classroom too! Learn more about this book below!
Engage Your Students with Red Riding Hood Lesson Plans & Activities in 3 Easy Steps:
- Read a summary of Red Riding Hood. You can find it in the section below.
- Check out the teaching ideas for reading comprehension strategies, grammar topics and social emotional learning skills that can be taught using this children’s book.
- Download the book companion to make lesson planning simple with Red Riding Hood reading comprehension questions, writing prompts, teaching ideas & no-prep extension activities.
RED RIDING HOOD SUMMARY
Little Red Riding Hood was a delightful young girl. One day, her mother shared that Granny was ill. She made a custard for her, and Red Riding Hood was to deliver it through the deep, dark woods. After Little Red Riding Hood swore to not talk to strangers, she was off.
It did not take long before she met a stranger- a wolf. However, the wolf was like no stranger she had ever met! The wolf was helpful and compassionate. As readers, we know that he has an ulterior motive. Once he learns enough, he runs ahead and gobbles up the Granny. He then jumps into the covers and awaits his dessert.
Little Red Riding Hood approaches Granny’s house and sees her, causing distress. How different she looks! The wolf quickly gobbles her up too, then takes a nap.
A hunter nearby hears the racket and comes quickly to Granny’s house. He splits open the wolf, revealing Little Red Riding Hood and Granny! Little Red promises to never talk to strangers again, no matter how charming they are.
RED RIDING HOOD LESSON PLAN IDEAS
Each of our 400+ Starts With a Story book companions come with a teacher’s guide to make lesson planning quick and easy, printable worksheets and digital resources that cover ALL of the standards-based reading comprehension skills.
When it comes to writing lesson plans and finding activities for Red Riding Hood, we’ve already done all of the heavy lifting for you.
We found this book was especially good at teaching the topics listed below.
READING COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
The text-based Red Riding Hood reading comprehension questions focus on:
- retelling
- analyzing illustrations
- author’s purpose
- making connections
LITERATURE-BASED SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING LESSONS
We found this story to be a great SEL picture book to promote:
- compassion
- courage
- advocacy
GRAMMAR, VOCABULARY & WORD STUDY
- prepositions
- adjectives
- interjection
RED RIDING HOOD ACTIVITIES
You’ll receive all of the following resources aligned to the story:
- comprehension questions
- 30 writing prompts with themed paper
- vocabulary activities
- word study print & go activities
- ideas for grammar lessons with focus sentence printables
- social emotional learning discussion topics
- graphic organizers to target specific comprehension skills and strategies
YOU HAVE 2 OPTIONS! WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO PURCHASE THIS BOOK COMPANION?
BOOK INFO FOR ELEMENTARY TEACHERS
What are the reading levels for Red Riding Hood?
- Lexile® Measure: 520L
- Guided Reading Level: M
- DRA Level: 20-28
- Accelerated Reader Level (ARC): 2.6-2.9
Who is the author? Who is the illustrator?
The book was written by James Marshall. It was illustrated by Charles Perrault.
What genre is Red Riding Hood?
It is a fiction book. You may want to check out our genre activities or read our blog post, How to Teach Genre to Elementary Students.
How many pages are in the book?
The story is 32 pages long.
