How One Small Loan Made a Big Difference- One Hen

Inventive, Educating, Honorable, Exemplary and Virtuous

One Hen by Katie Smith Milway and Illustrated by Eugene Fernandes

Published by Kids Can Press

Copyright 2008

2009 Children’s Choice Winner 

This book written by Katie Smith Milway and Ilustrated by Eugenie Fernandes takes place in Africa in a Ghana village. The main character Kojo cannot go to school because he cannot afford it after the death of his father. His mom takes out a loan and Kojo buys a chicken with the leftover coins. In this resourceful story readers follow along with Kojo and see how he is able to complete his education and then even creates a business when he gets older. This book will show readers that money is important in life as the economy continues to grow. The most interesting part of the story is that it is based on a true story and will help readers connect to the main character that struggles at first and then prevails.

Description: Non-Fiction, Diversity                   

Suggested Delivery: Read Aloud

Reading Level: Lexile Framework- 810L

Electronic Resources:

One Hen Lesson Plan

This link provides a very interesting lesson plan activity to use in the classroom. The students will be able to review economic concepts that are featured in this book and they will also be able to identify the main characters and setting of the book by playing BINGO.

Kids Can Press

This link brings you to the publishing companies website. The website includes a brief description of the book, curriculum connections and reading level statistics.

One Hen

This is the official book website where you can learn the story, take a quiz and also play games. This is a fun interacting website that the children can view before or after reading the book.

Key Vocabulary: Scarcity, Entrepreneur, Natural Resources, Capital Resources, Loan, Microcredit, and International

Teaching Suggestions:

1. Use this text to help teach economic and financial terms.

2. Use this text to show that teamwork is important when accomplishing goals.

3. Use this text when doing a Social Studies lesson on the different cultures.

Comprehension Strategies:

Pre-reading- Before reading this book present the vocabulary words to the children on the board. Help define the unknown words as a group. This will help the students understand the words when they read the book.

During Reading- Have a popcorn discussion during reading to help students connect to the text and help them communicate with others what is happening so far in the book.

Post- Reading- Have the students research some different microlending organizations such as ACCION International, Food for Hungry, Habitat for Humanity ETC. This will help them learn about what different things each of these organizations do.

Writing Activity- Have the children write to an organization in North America that donate money to village banks. Have them explain if they had a lot of money what they would do to help and why they chose to help this organization.

Milway, Katie Smith, and Eugenie Fernandes. One hen: how one small loan made a big difference. Toronto: Kids Can Press, 2008. Print.