There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Chick!

I don't know about you, but The Old Lady is a celebrity in my speech room. My students absolutely adore her and so do I. She's crazy, eccentric, funny, and downright loveable. Now.. I know there are many fabulous book companions for this book that are floating around, but I wanted to create one that caters to the needs of my own students. Hopefully, these activities will prove useful for you too!

You can find this book companion in the Teachers Pay Teachers store by clicking here.

First up, you ABSOLUTELY CANNOT read this book without offering your students the opportunity to feed granny! This is a must activity. Students love it and well.... so do I. It's so much fun!

You simply cut out granny's head and an opening for her mouth.. then laminate! There are a couple options here. You can tape granny's head onto a small garbage can/tissue box or you let students take turns holding granny's head for each other (which is what I do). This also helps students remain engaged while they listen to another student retell the story. They love it. Trust me. Then students feed granny the cards and retell the story simultaneously. 

This story is absolutely perfect for retelling and sequencing. I think it's important to give students a variety of options for retelling so I also created a sequencing map. Students place the objects on the correct sequencing tile (first, second, etc). 

Typically, while two students are feeding granny I have one student working on this activity with scaffolding from me. I think teachers and school speech pathologists can multitask like no other! haha.. I am supporting both activities at once and it works. Then students switch activities.

Another activity I designed was a comprehension card game. You can play the game any way you would like, but typically I allow students to feed granny the card if they get the question right. There are 18 comprehension cards included.

If you have noticed, all of my book companions include a following direction activity! This is because I have so many students who are working on following multistep directions. It's a skill I tie into everything that we do. So of course, this book companion features a fun card game that focuses on temporal directions (before and after). Students draw a card and if they follow the direction correctly they get to keep the card. If they are wrong, they have to feed the card to granny! There are also special cards, such as "feed granny one card" or "feed granny all of your cards." The student with the most cards left at the end wins! Students really stay on their toes during this game! And laughter usually fills the room when a student draws a special card. 24 cards are included.

Phonological awareness is one of my favorite skills to work on! This book contains the silliest rhymes. I didn't want to create another card game (even though I love them!) so I created a bingo game! Simply read the bingo prompts and students have to find a word that rhymes with the given word on their bingo board. There are three different bingo boards included. Here is an example:

I have a few students who are working on prepositions, so this next activity was inspired by them! It's called "Put a Bow On It!" You print and laminate a basket and a set of bows. If you have multiple students you may want to create a basket for everyone, but you don't have to. Read the preposition on the bow and have the student place it on the correct location. Fun, right?!

Of course, this book is a great companion for students who are working on articulation too! This book can be read to them for modeling purposes. The sound that obviously comes to mind is /ch/. I created four color, cut, and glue activities for students who are working on /ch, j/. These activiities can be done in the speech room or sent home as homework!

I also wanted to incorporate some grammar! I made an activity that addresses irregular plurals and another that addresses irregular past tense. Students cut out the irregular plural/past tense bow and glue it on top of the correct basket.

I hope you enjoy this book companion, if you snag it please comment and let me know what you think!

Also, be sure to follow my TPT store for new book companions and the latest updates! It can be found here.

Have a great Wild About Books Wednesday! This week There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a... Book Companion. Come back next Wednesday to discover a new book to use in your therapy!

~Scarlett