The Milkmaid

This is the story with the moral: "Don't count your chickens until they're hatched!" I thought it would be appropriate since we just finished hatching baby chicks from eggs in the classroom (they hatched last week). The retelling I favor for this story is found in a collection of fables called BORROWED FEATHERS AND OTHER FABLES illustrated by Freire Wright and Michael Foreman, edited by Bryna Stevens




For the acting out of this fable, I had the students balance an empty basket on their heads while they walked and pretended to be the milkmaid. Believe me, there is nothing like balancing something on your head, walking, and retelling a story orally! It goes right into memory. Whammo.

As a side note: I recently discovered a wonderful series of 21 eggs that show how a baby chick develops during each day of its gestation. It is fabulous for helping children to follow along. I opened one egg each day for my students. You can find it here: Chick Lifecycle Exploration Kit.