Use There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Books! by Lucille Colandro to strengthen your students' comprehension skills, build their vocabulary, and help them understand how words work.
This playful, back-to-school read builds excitement and fluency through repetition, rhyme, and sequencing. In the story, the old lady swallows one school supply after another—books, a pencil case, some chalk, and more—until everything comes together in a surprising and satisfying ending.
This humorous, rhythmic story gives students many chances to practice key comprehension strategies such as identifying the author's purpose, retelling & summarizing, and asking questions. Students will be challenged with a fun word work activity that focuses on two-syllable words, and have a chance to create a fun, back-to-school craft as an extension activity!
This outrageous story sparks all kinds of curiosity. Students will have fun wondering why the old lady keeps swallowing things, how the items might come together, and what might happen next. This resource encourages readers to pause, wonder, and generate both literal and inferential questions, helping them stay actively engaged and deepen their understanding of the text.
From the playful word choice to the silly storyline, students will have many chances to think about the author's purpose. Why did the author choose rhyme? Why do certain lines repeat? Why is each item connected to school? Through guided discussion and written response, students will explore how Lucille Colandro uses rhythm, repetition, and surprise to entertain her readers while celebrating the excitement of a new school year.
With each new item the old lady swallows, students are naturally invited to track and retell the sequence of events. The repetitive pattern and cumulative structure make this an ideal story for practicing retelling with a focus on key details and story structure.
This word work lesson plan and set of teaching resources use There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Books! by Lucille Colandro as a springboard for instruction focused on syllables.
By anchoring word study to the text, students will benefit from seeing how two-syllable words are used inside the text before engaging in both guided and independent practice with syllables.
This set of vocabulary development resources for There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Books! highlights the words that are most important for students to know and understand while reading the book. Through engaging in fun word games, matching words to definitions and pictures, and practicing how to categorize words, students will develop the vocabulary necessary to comprehend this story and many others.
In There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Books!, the old lady swallows everything from a pencil to a backpack to get ready for school! This playful writing activity invites students to imagine what they would "swallow" to prepare for their own school day. Using sentence starters and guided writing support, students will describe five items they need for school, then bring their writing to life by creating a fun craft where the supplies are "fed" into a character's mouth. This activity encourages creativity, sequencing, and fine motor development—making it a memorable way to kick off the school year.
Understanding cause and effect is a key comprehension and language skill. The text structure of There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Books! includes several examples of cause and effect relationships, making it easy to use as a springboard for modeling or independent practice.
This simple resource includes four sentence stems. Each sentence stem presents an effect. Students will use what they know about the book to fill in the cause of the effect.
Read There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Books! then have some fun matching cause and effect sentences from the book. By using these cause and effect cards, students will demonstrate both their comprehension of the text and their understanding of cause and effect relationships in a hands-on and interactive way.
This resource includes matching/sorting cards and a sorting mat for four cause and effect sentences in There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Books!. Each cause card is marked with a square and each effect card is marked with a circle, making it easy to support students who struggle with matching cause and effect relationships.
There was an old lady who's ready for school!
That lovely old lady has returned just in time for the first day of school. Now she's swallowing items to make the very best of her first day back. And just in time for the bus... With rhyming text and funny illustrations, this lively version of the classic song will appeal to young readers with every turn of the page--a fun story for the first day of school!
