There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Bat

You have probably read, There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly to your class. If you enjoyed that book, you will love this one and so will your students.

I created ideas to go along with There Was a Cold Lady Who Swallowed some Snow and thought I would do the same for There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat. Below you will find some of my ideas of how to use this in your classroom (Prek-2). You will also find many free printables I created to match this fun story.

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Updated:

Prior Knowledge - Before Reading:

*Have students discuss the picture on the front of the book.
*Discuss what you think the old lady might swallow and what might happen at the end of the story.

Vocabulary to Discuss:
Write on Flash Cards and Display

swallow

bat

owl

howl

shush

cat

fat

ghost

goblin

dizzy

catch

scare

chase

bones

groan

rattle

wizard

spell

After Reading:

Something to think about???

1.) Do you think that a person could swallow all those things?

2.) What was your favorite part of the story?

3.) Who remembers why the old lady swallowed the wizard?

Make an Old Lady To Retell the Story


This is Dr. Jean's Old Lady. You can make your own and have her swallow just about anything. Here she is swallowing letter sounds.


Have your student make their own old lady! All you need is a ziploc baggie. Your students create legs, arms, and a head to attach to the lady.

Above is one I created using a child's apron found at Michael's Craft store. The printables come from KizClub. Click here for the link to the printable. I printed, laminated, and then hot glued the lady to the apron. I would suggest you make a few of these and have your students retell the story using the vests. They will love this activity. Also you could have the lady swallow letters and say the sound as she swallows the letters.

Click here to print objects for the Little Old Lady to Swallow that match The Cold Lady Who Swallowed some Snow!

Click here to print objects for the Little Old Lady to Swallow that match The Old Lady Who Swallowed a BAt

More ideas

-Use the pictures of the characters to sequence how they were ordered in the book.

-Graph Old Lady Swallowed a Bat Pictures by using this activity sheet.
Click here to downlaod

-Rewrite the story for another holiday.

-Add some more things for the old lady to swallow. Draw a picture of what you would like her to swallow next.cccc

- Pocket Chart Sequence Pictures From The Story

Have the students place the graphics in the right order at the end of each sentence. I created a printable that you can use with this activity.

For the younger student, make a set of pictures for each student and have them just sequence the pictures in order.

I created an activity sheet that has the student write in the words of the items the cold lady swallowed. The student is also asked to draw a picture of the items the cold lady swallowed.

Click Here to Download this activity sheet!

Order From Amazon:
A great couple of lessons would be to compare and contrast these books.
How are they similar and how aren't they alike?

Click to view a Venn Diagram to Use

Treat Your Class to A Show!

From Scholastic on DVD

Other Sites With Ideas and Lessons

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