There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly

This classic tune is a gem as far as teaching a sequence of events... and kids think it's hilarious that this odd lady keeps swallowing creatures.  The above book version by Simms Taback is great because of the cut-outs in the page that let you see all the animals "inside" and watch the lady get larger and larger.

When I was teaching, my only hang-up was that the word "die" is used in every verse... and then she dies at the end (after trying to swallow a horse...duh!). I thought some kids might not feel comfortable singing a song like that.  But then, I remembered all those Road Runner and Wile E Coyote cartoons I watched as a kid.... and all the times the coyote "died" while trying to catch road runner. And, I don't think that my young worldview was rocketed into emotional stress because of those cartoons - so, maybe  it's not so scary after all.

Check out this melody if you don't know it already (go here), then go see if your library has this book so you can sing along with the story!

The boys loved it (yay!). I got very animated at the hilarity and ridiculousness of the lady swallowing the animals. And it's great for following sequences. I pointed to each animal who was swallowed to catch the next animal and K sang right along.

And I love all the extra quotes all throughout this book - makes the reader laugh even more than the kids!

And then we followed up later with some poster-board and my amazing art skills... I know you'll all be REALLY impressed. There are a hundred more awesome ways to do this... just look online for ideas, but this is what I had available at the moment... and it was still successful. :-)

I would have printed some animals out via clip art, but my color printer was out... So, I drew a large woman with a big stomach ready to be filled. K dictated to me what each body feature should look like (crazy hair, big mouth, big eyes, little feet, etc... I think she looks more like the Batman Joker than an old woman, but anyway...)

Then I drew each animal and put tape on the back of each one.

We sang through the song (K and J alternated turns taping them up onto the crazy lady's belly).

 Have fun!