Activities For "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat"

1 2 3 Come Do Some Sequencing Activities With Me

Do you read “There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat!” by Lucille Colandro?

It's a favorite October story of my Young Fives, and perfect of practicing the "sequencing & retelling a story" standards.

With that in mind, I designed these quick, easy & super-fun (Print & Go) activties, that I think your students will really enjoy transitioning to, after you read the story.

Since the old lady yells "Trick or Treat!" at the end of the story, any of these activities, particularly the "tongue" craft, would be great for a little something different, for Halloween week or Halloween party day too.

The packet includes:

1. A whole group sequencing & retelling craftivity: “Bat Got Your Tongue?”

For extra durability, print on card stock, then laminate & trim. This is a picture of the old lady before I attached her tongue.

I purposely used ordinal numbers for the tongue, so that you can practice another standard.

Pass out the mini cards (of what the old lady swallowed) to your students.

As you come to that item in the story, the child holding that card attaches it to the old lady's tongue. You can use a magnet, Velcro or glue dot to attach the pictures.

The last item to be placed on your whiteboard or flannel board is the "Trick or Treat!" speech bubble, which will go above the little old lady.

Afterwards point to each item and have children retell the story. They will be excited to transition to making a little old lady of their own.

2. Students have a smaller, black & white old lady craft, where students color & cut the items that the old lady swallows.

Children sequence, then glue the “picture tiles” to her tongue in chronological order.

So that you can easily diversify your lessons to suit the various abilities & skill levels of your students, I've included a variety of options.

For example, after they have added some color, little ones can simply glue the entire picture strip on the tongue, without cutting and gluing the graphics individually.

There's also a "mixed up" strip for older students to color, cut, sort & sequence, then glue on. To expedite this, the "boxes" on the tongue, are the same size as their matching picture.

As always, all patterns come in full-color so that teachers can quickly & easily make examples to share, as well as black & white for students to color.

3. Since completed projects make a terrific bulletin board or hallway display, (Be sure and curl the end of the tongue for some extra 3D pop), I've included a “Having Fun With the Little Old Lady” poster for some extra pizzazz.

The packet also includes These "Print & Go" activities:

4. A “Checking for Comprehension” worksheet, where students fill in the blanks using words from a word bank.

5. An “Ask Me a Question” worksheet.

6. A “Let’s Sequence The Little Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat” worksheet.

7. A “Here’s What Happened” writing extension.

All of the worksheets can be done as a whole group activity, used in a small reading group, or done individually.

So that you can easily diversify your lessons, I’ve included a variety of options for the worksheets as well.

8. I’ve also included colorful answer keys.

9. For added value, there’s a BONUS activity: “Show Me A Pattern” game/center, which uses the picture tiles.

Since the old lady is yelling "Trick or Treat!" at the end of the story, I thought it would be appropriate for the Featured FREEBIE to be a "color me" safety rules for trick or treating.

At the end of the day (perhaps Halloween party day?) have students quietly color their worksheet, then send home for parents.

Besides the "color me" page, I've also included one in full-color that you can read with your students, then post on a wall if you want.

I know that much of this is common sense, but "...better safe than sorry" and "forewarned is prepared."

halloween activities, spooky spirals, halloween crafts, ghost activities, halloween party day fun Well that's it for today. I hope you found something here you can use.