Armadilly Chili

Armadilly Chili
Written by Helen Ketteman
Illustrated by Will Terry
2004

In this southwestern version of the Little Red Hen, Miss Billie Armadilly tries to enlist the help of her friends to make a pot of chili. Of course, none of them are willing to help but hey are certainly interested in eating! In the surprise ending, all of the animals bring an item to contribute to the party and are welcomed as friends.

Mini-Lesson: Text-to-Text Connections

Share with students that sometimes, when we are reading, books will remind us of other books we have read. This type of connection is a text-to-text connection and is helps us to tap into our schema about different topics or types of books. By making text-to-text connections, readers can make inferences and predictions, draw conclusions, and synthesize information about the books they are reading.

Have the students give a quiet thumbs-up signal when they can think o fa book that this one reminds them of. Begin reading the book, stopping after the first three pages to see if the students are beginning to make connections to another text. (You may want to read on a bit and see if more students are responding if the the first check in minimal.) Pause about half=way through the book to discuss what texts the students are connecting to. Other texts may be mentioned, but the Little Red Hen is the most obvious and helpful connection. Ask students to make connection between how the texts are alike so far. Differences can be discussed as well. Also discuss how knowing the story of the Little Red Hen helps them to understand the events and the feelings of Armadilly Chili better. This connection also assists with making predictions about what could happen next.

Continue reading the books, pausing where appropriate to continue to connections discussion. The ending of this text contrasts to other versions of the Little Red Hen, but provides opportunities to make connections about the feeling of the character sand why the characters may have felt differently in this book.

Extension: This activity may be extended by creating a chart of connections.

Mini-Lesson: Compare and Contrast

This text also provides the perfect opportunity to compare and contrast Armadilly Chili and the Little Red Hen by following the mini-lesson above, only emphasizing the similarities and differences in the texts. Pause frequently throughout the book to discuss what is alike or different in events, characters, and feelings. This lesson can be charted through the use of a Venn diagram or a t-chart to compare and contrast.

More specifically, the characters of the Little Red Hen and Billie Armadilly may be compared as a character study. This can also be done through the use of a t-chart or Venn diagram.