There Was an Old Lady
Who Swallowed a Fly!
We took a few weeks right before Thanksgiving for this fun book, as well as some interesting variations of it. It was a great way to practice some new sight words, compare and contrast story structure, characters and settings, and it gave us a chance to talk about nutrition, too!
We began with our ever handy and trusted pocket chart, as we learned the sequence of the story, sight words from the story and matched unknown animals words with the correct character pieces. The chart was a fun way to retell the story, too and our Old Lady puppet (which actually could "swallow" the animals) was a big hit. The munchkins made their own little puppet for retelling the story as well. She could "swallow" pieces, too!
We collected all of our fun activities in a little file folder lapbook. The munchkins had a great time playing with the lapbook out in their spare time. It was filled with story pieces, sight word games, rhyme matching games and number word recognition practice. It was fun to see them spread out at the tables or on the floor and play!
The munchkins had fun creating the outside of the lapbook almost as much as creating all the fun games inside! They each colored the little Old Lady and gave her a speech bubble. What do you think that little Old Lady would say after swallowing all those crazy critters?
"Oh my, the cow's horn hurt me!"
"I feel sick!"
Very creative little writers we have in our class!
We finished up this story by changing it a bit. The munchkins created their own version. Such fun! We had that little Old Lady swallowing all sorts of things: trucks, stop signs, hats, giraffes, coats. Oh, my!
And of course, we can't get through any story without a recipe day! We decided it would be fun to make the "spider that wiggled and wriggled and jiggled inside her".
There was a "young" lady who swallowed a spider!
After having so much fun with this story, the munchkins couldn't wait to read the next one: I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie. What a crazy Thanksgiving story that one was! It was a great opportunity for us to start discussing Thanksgiving traditions & healthy eating and it was a fun way to compare two stories with the same (yet very different) story structure.
The munchkins helped fill out a large classroom Venn Diagram, then they used the information from that chart to create their own small Venn Diagram. They did a fantastic job!
After reading about all this crazy eating, we decided we should discuss what healthy eating looks like. We played several games to help us learn about the food pyramid and the basic types of foods our bodies need to stay healthy. The munchkins even had a tasting day to see what kinds of foods they like best. It made a great journal entry too (and a great lesson in what makes the /oo/ sound in the word "food"!)
We were sad to see the little Old Lady go, but with only one more full week until Thanksgiving, we are excited to think about what we may be doing next! I think I hear some "gobbling", don't you?
Until next time,
Giggles,
Mrs. D
