Hattie the Hen Counts to Ten
A counting story with a surprise at every number.
Hattie the hen woke up one morning with a puzzle. She had laid ten beautiful brown eggs, but she could not remember where she had put them! “Cluck, cluck,” she said. “I must find them all.”
She began by the fence. One! There was a small brown egg, hiding in the long grass. She tucked it under her wing and kept going.
She looked in the old wheelbarrow. Two! And three! Two eggs were nestled in a pile of straw. Hattie went, “Cluck-cluck, hooray,” and added them to her wing.
Next, she peeked inside a flowerpot by the barn. Four! It sat cosy among the soft green leaves. Then, she checked the hay bale. Five! It had rolled to the very bottom.
Hattie hopped up onto the water trough. Six, seven! Two eggs sat side by side on a ledge. She stood very still, so as not to knock them off. Her wing was getting full.
She walked past the old red tractor and looked underneath. Eight! A shiny brown egg sat in the shade. Then she heard a little “peep” from under a bush. Nine! It was a tiny egg, and next to it, a fluffy yellow chick had hatched.
“Ten!” said Hattie. The chick was her tenth egg, and it had hatched all by itself! She tucked it under her wing with the other eggs and gave it a kiss.
Back at the henhouse, Hattie counted them once more, all the way from one to ten. She settled onto her nest, warm and proud. “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten,” she clucked softly, and drifted off to sleep.
✨ Key Takeaways
- Counting helps us keep track of the things we care about.
- Looking carefully in different places helps us find what we need.
- Surprises can be hiding in ordinary places.
💬 Questions for Discussion & Reflection
- Where did Hattie find her eggs?
- What was the surprise at number ten?
- Can you count from one to ten, and find ten things in your home?
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