Early Learning Game ~ There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly
I’ve never swallowed a fly, and I can’t even begin to imagine swallowing a spider! That just makes me shiver thinking about it! I have a hard enough time removing a spider from my house let alone eating one. Maybe that is why the book There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly holds such appeal to kids. There is always lots of giggles as we read it. It was also one of my childhood favorites and I am so excited to be able to bring it to life with this fun activity. Simple activities are the best and this one is no exception.
There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly!
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Materials needed:
- The book There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly ~ you can pick up a copy at your local library if you don’t have one, or borrow from a friend like I did:)
- Empty, clean and label removed syrup bottle ~ our Mrs. Butter-worth’s Syrup
comes in a bottle that is shaped like a lady and perfect for this activity!
- Pipe-cleaners
- Alphabet beads ~ We were given a package of Alphabet beads from Craft Project ideas, and love them. (You can follow Craft Project Ideas on Facebook for more great ideas.)
To set up this learning station:
- Set out the book
- Precut the pipe-cleaners into about 4″ sections.
- Clean, dry and remove the label from the bottle
- Set out the alphabet beads ~ I chose to just leave them on the table, but a shallow tray would contain all the beads and keep them from spilling to the floor.
Have your child find the animals in the book that the old lady swallowed. Then have them thread the matching letters onto the pip-cleaners, to spell the animals names. To secure the alphabet letters on the pipe-cleaners, simple bend each of the pipe-cleaner ends back on itself.
You can also use these simple word animals as a fun sequencing activity.
Once you have the pipe-cleaner animals all assembled, read the book. As the lady swallows one of the animals in the book; have the child drop the corresponding pipe-cleaner animal into the bottle.
A great way to extend this activity:
There are so many fun versions of this classic book that would work great with this activity. “There was an old lady who swallowed a pie” or “There was an old lady who swallowed a shell” and so many more! Read a new book and then create more pipe-cleaner words.
You could also create your own funny version of this book. My kids would get a kick out of that! “There was an old lady who swallowed a __________” and let the kids think up silly things to ad to the list.
This fun activity is great for spelling, word recognition, early readers, sequencing and working on fine motor skills. Lots of learning fun all in one activity!
I was surprised at how easy the pipe-cleaner animals were to dump out of the bottles.
I would love for you to share what you have been learning with books. Feel free to leave a link in the comments so we can find what you have been up too!
Disclaimer: Not too long ago we received a delightful package from CraftProjectIdeas.com. It was packed full of craft supplies. One of the things we received was a ginormous package of Alphabet beads from Craft Project ideas.
This is crazy cool. LOVE IT!!
Thanks for your sweet comment Jennifer:)
Oh – and I featured in my Kid’s Co-Op round up last week. Forgot to pop over and tell you! http://jennifischer.blogspot.com/2013/06/summer-reading-our-special-summer-book.html
This is such a great idea and very easy to set up. I like your choice of bottles, very Old Lady who Swallowed a Fly, like!
Emma Farrell
Thanks Emma. I love the bottle too, it fits perfectly:)
I remember that book from when I was growing up – such a fun one! I love the idea of spelling the animal names with the beads and putting them into the lady! Thanks for sharing!
It’s a childhood favorite here too.
What an amazing ideas. I need to find some beads really 🙂
Thanks Veens, We are having so much fun with this activity. There are so many great uses for alphabet beads.
Super Cute Craft! But am I the only one who noticed bird (brid) was mispelled….LOL Thanks for sharing this super cute idea.
Ha! Oops…that is too funny. I totally missed catching it. Too late now:)
One of my kids actually said that they were scared of this book when growing up. Go know
I love this idea for my beginning reader!
We recently picked up this exact book at a rummage sale; I’m totally going to make this when we empty Mrs. Butterworth! Thanks for the great idea.
My 7 year old still love this book and will occasionally bring it out to read. We always have a great fun reading it.
This is genius! I love how you used the syrup bottle lady and built words. I am going to share it on my Facebook page and Pinterest.
If you haven’t already, please link up with the Monday Kid Corner at http://thejennyevolution.com/2013/06/16/monday-kid-corner-roundup-no-23/.
See you there! Jennifer @ The Jenny Evolution
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Love this! When I shared this a commenter asked how you get all the sticky syrup remnants off the bottle…. what did you do? I have a bottle all ready to use and am going to start with just warm water and soap. Anything else special to get it all out?
Thanks for sharing Kristina! We soaked our bottle in warm soapy water, and then used a little Goo Gone to remove the last few sticky remnants.
It has been 13 years since I retired after teaching first or second grade for 38 years. I still love to read what is going on in school. I love the neat ideas that are posted. I am going to share the idea of using a syrup bottle for the center ” The Old Lady Who Shallowed A Fly” with my daughter who teaches remedial reading. Thanks for the idea!URL
I loved this idea. I just read the book to my kindergarten kids. I am going to incorporate this activity. Thanks for sharing.