There was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Bat

Everyone knows and loves the 

story of the old lady who swallowed a fly...

...did we ever figure out WHY she swallowed that fly?

Well by now, you probably have seen the 

different variations of this story by Lucille Colandro:

 There's even a STICKER BOOK!

(Which is totally on my list of things to buy!)

Well...the old lady is at it again...

This time, eating BATS! 

How many things can this chick eat?! 

This story is a great one to add to 

your Nocturnal Animals unit, 

and it ties in nicely with end of the 

month October classroom activities.

Start off the week by introducing them to some 

vocabulary words that go along with the story. 

Here are two different types of pocket chart
vocabulary cards that 

you can use to introduce the words 

and later on, to practice sequencing with.

Use these vocabulary posters reinforce the words 

that go with the story. 

There is a corresponding writing activity that you can use with it later on once they are more familiar with the words.

 All you need to do, is hang the posters up around the room in various "hidden" locations, give the students a clipboard and pencil, and let them wander around finding the posters. Once they find them, have them write that word down, using the poster as a reference for spelling.

These posters are also a great reference for the following vocab 

cut and paste activity:

 Students can look at the posters to see how to 

rebuild the story's vocabulary words.

Or if you want a similar activity to use at one of your centers, 

you can use these colorful build-a-word activity mats:

All you need to do is laminate them for extra durability, and cut out the alphabet pieces needed to build the word.

Once you feel your kids are ready to complete some 

sequencing activities on their own, there are two versions of

 two different activities that you can choose from. 

The first activity sequencing activity lets the Old Lady 

"eat" her objects one-by-one! 

 

With both a black and white and a colorful option, 

you have the ability to practice sequencing as a whole group 

or at a center and individually to take home as well.

The next activity, sequencing mats, involves 

cutting and pasting (if you use the black/white option) 

or simply placing object cards in the correct order on the activity mat.

 Now that they've had lots of practice with vocabulary and sequencing

-it's time to read!

Students will LOVE their very own Kindergarten 

There was an Old Lady... book. 

There are two books in this download. 

The first is 11 pages long and practices the words "this", "is", and "a".
"
The second book is 10 pages long and practices the 

words "she", "ate", and "a".

 You can find these two emergent readers here!

Want all that you have seen so far?
Here is a bundle with all of the activities in one!

 Don't forget craft time throughout the week! 

I found a fun bat hat...

You can find directional pictures, 

as well as sample of others that have been decorated at...

The Crafty Crow

A few other quick and easy bat crafts I found off of Pinterest were:

This bat hand print picture with 

foam stars and moon. 

I think this would look cuter on a dark blue paper. 

Slap on some small googly eyes and call it done!

Here is an easy paper plate one. 

You can buy black paper plates at Party City...

...or have the kids paint it if you feel brave!

Here's a picture of quick instructions on 

how to make it...

 Looking for corresponding snacks to add 

some pizzazz to 

your theme?

Check out this fun, cheap snack idea from 

The Disney Diner.

Or what about these? 

They would still be very cute plain with no faces on them.

Read Stellaluna by Janelle Cannon to them while they munch!

"Stellaluna has been charming picture-book readers for years with its moving 

tale of a lost little bat who learns a big lesson about friendship." ~Amazon

Or watch the short video of the book.

Want a longer version?

Here's the movie, presented by Scholastic.

Once their tummies are full, 

you can fly on into nocturnal animals with this neat song.

I'll save all of the ideas and activities that you can do 

with nocturnal animals for a different time! 

You've got enough to plan out for now...

~Til next time

                 

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bek

Cinderella, Cinderella

Cinderelly, Cinderelly

Night and day it's Cinderelly

"Make the fire, fix the breakfast
Wash the dishes, do the mopping!"

Didn't you just love that song as a kid?

...well, perhaps not, if you're a guy reading this!

And now you're probably still singing it! Ha!

Last week our theme was 

and the kids had a blast.

We read various versions of the story.

I even found various multi-cultural versions of this fairy tale...

Kid World Citizen has a lot of tips and helps for what you can do with these various versions in your classroom. 

And you can find most of these on Amazon.

Want to teach your students about perspective? 

Here is a great story for that! Everyone always thinks 

Cinderella is so kind and sweet, but....

Look inside this book on Amazon!

And don't forget about the mice in Cinderella!

We tied in the mice with our color words practice. 

First, we read Mouse Paint, by Ellen Stoll Walsh

Look inside this book on Amazon.

I found squeaky-cute activity sheets to go with this book on 

First Grade...a la carte's blog.

Check out her blog here.

One of our centers used her mouse coloring activity sheet. 

It's absolutely free!

Students read the color inside of the mouse to see which crayon to use.

Download these activity sheets for your class.

Once students finished, they were able to use Play-doh 

to experiment with color mixing. 

I gave them each two small balls of play-doh. 

First they colored the circles on their sheet to show what colors they had, 

and then they mixed the play-doh to see what new color they would make. 

They filled in the last circle with the new color that was made.

You can have the Play-doh color mixing sheet I made for FREE.

Click here to download it.

At our book box center, we practiced reading the sight words 
"can" and "the" 
in our Cinderella Who Can You See? book.

 You can find this emergent reader in my store.

 

Don't forget to spend some time focusing on Prince Charming!

Have I ever shown you a picture of MY Prince Charming?

Sorry ladies! I stole the best one out there ;)

QUICK SHOUT OUT...

Thanks for always doing dishes, babe! 

Take some time to go over manners as you talk about characteristics of Prince Charming. There are so many resources that you can tie into this topic. 

Here's one of my favorites that I've posted about before:

You can even compare and contrast with behaviors seen in the following book:

Practice your syllable counting with these 
Cinderella Syllable Sorting cards that can go 
inside of your plastic sleeves. Or you can staple a baggie on the bottom 
of them. They come with 45 picture/word cards that can be sorted. 
Students look at the picture or read the word, clap and count how 
many syllables, and place it on the correct mat.

 Interested in this activity? Find it here.

Need Cinderella-y decorations for your classroom? 
Use these Cinderella themed Posters (made with Melonheadz clipart) with corresponding writing activity. 

Hang these posters up around your room during your Cinderella unit. 
There are two corresponding writing activity sheets that go with them so that students can practice writing words as well. 
Use this in any way you want! 

Students can walk around the room, find the pictures, and write the words on their sheet.

After using the writing activity, leave the posters up to decorate!

I had a hard time finding an easy Cinderella themed craft. 
I wanted something that boys would be interested in too...
Something not too complicated for Kindergarten. 

Here is what I finally found from The Celebration Shoppe:

PUMPKINS!
Perfect! Meets a boy's interest AND it's the perfect intro into fall!

First pre-cut orange strips. (Approx. 1 1/2 in. wide)
Use short strips for shorter pumpkins, long strips for long ones.
Then cut out some green leave and cut brown pipe cleaners in half.

Have them count out and stack six strips together. Poke a brad through the top for them. Have them fan it out and then attach the bottom with a brad as well. Then let them go to town adding curly brown vines and leaves to the top.

 

Ta-dah!

Want them more round? Simply use shorter orange strips of paper.

To add a little pizzazz...
purchase the foam pumpkins from Target's fall/Halloween section. 
You can get 36 for only $5!

Write the names of your student in the middle with a Sharpie and then add a glittery border around it for some fall sparkle. Display them in an AB pattern in your classroom to reinforce your pattern teaching!

Perfect pumpkins!
Speaking of pumpkins...

You probably don't know this about me-but I am a pumpkin-lovin' kind of girl. 
Pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin coffee, pumpkin pie...
You name it pumpkin, and I'm there eating it!

So while I'm off searching for the closest Starbucks for my happily, ever after...

You can check out my Cinderella bundle to find 
additional activities that were not shown. 


~Til next time~

             

Read more »

bek