This story is a way to include a bit of laughter into your classroom through a read aloud. With the catchy repetitive lines that are predictable, students can engage in choral reading as a class and create their own lines of other things they think the old lady might eat next.
pickPicture book. The colorful and wacky illustrations make this book visually exciting and engaging. The cutouts in the story are creative in the way that they show how the old lady's stomach grows and grows with all the new things she eats. This is a classic silly story that follows a catchy repetitive line.
pickThere Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly is a classic cumulative tale first published in 1961, written by Simms Taback. The story follows the increasingly silly and absurd choices of an old lady who swallows a series of animals, each larger than the last, to catch the one before it.
“Come into my parlour,“ said the Spider to the Fly. “Tis the prettiest little parlour that ever you did spy.“
spider invites a fly to his home with sweet promises of a warm and comfortable stay, but the fly soon realizes too late that the spider has darker intentions.
pickThe tale is both a warning and a work of art, cleverly teaching readers about the dangers of manipulation and the importance of thinking critically.
And now dear little children, who may this story read,
To idle, silly flattering words, I pray you ne'er give heed:
Unto an evil counsellor, close heart and ear and eye,
And take a lesson from this tale, of the Spider and the Fly.
This poem can be used during Halloween time to fit the fall and scary theme! This book can also be used to teach the moral lesson of “stranger danger“.
