This is a fun story to read to your class and is most likely aimed for lower key stage one children. The story is about a lady who swallows a whole list of animals (fly, spider, bird, cat, dog, pig, goat, cow, donkey and a horse). The lady keeps swallowing animals to catch the last animal she swallowed. The comical element of the story is that the lady dies after she swallows the horse however she should have died after swallowing the bird. When telling the story to young children the words can be turned into a song which adds to the enjoyment element. The design of the book is also interesting and engaging for younger viewers as there are purposely created holes to see into the ladies tummy and all the animals she has swallowed. There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly". BookTrust. One of the Classic Books-with-Holes that have been around for 30 years. There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly is a cumulative nursery rhyme. This means that the song builds on itself from stanza to stanza. At first, the old lady swallows a fly. She adds a spider to “catch the fly” and a “bird to catch the spider.” This goes on, using a repeating pattern throughout the stanzas. There are, in total, fifty-six lines in this version of the rhyme. The stanzas grow as the poem progresses, eventually ending with an eleven-line stanza (before the concluding two-line stanza).

There was an old who swallowed a fly tells a story of just that, an elderly women whom swallows a fly. She attempts to solve the problem by swallowing a spider to swallow the fly, but is once again left with an animal inside her. The women then continues to swallow different types of animals in attempts to solve her horrendous appetite, until the size of the animals get so ridiculous the women literally dies. Although the woman does die the poem is playful, and with such arrhythmic rhyme scheme one cant help but sing along.This book takes place in the old lady's stomach. She eats random animals and insects and all we see is inside her stomach.

Find the missing letters in The Old Lady and the Fly story words, and then color the picture of the word. The words are eat, fly, cat, dog, bird, cow, lady, goat, horse, spider.Repetition: occurs whenever the poet repeats the same images, ideas, structures, words, phrases, etc., in a poem. In this case, the poet depends on repetition throughout.

Characteristics that Support the Genre: Rose Bonne’s poem is cleverly illustrated by Pam Adams, who captures the lightheartedness and visual interest to make this particular version of the story a book to be read and looked at again and again. Decca DL 5467, reviewed in Billboard, September 12, 1953, p. 36. The record label also indicates the Mills-Bonne credit. In 1956, composer Alan Mills recorded a version for Scholastic Records released on his children's album Animals, Vol.1. [11]

Enchanted Learning Search

Draw a picture of your favorite scene from the story, then write about what animal is in it, what is happening, and why. I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly". onf-nfb.gc.ca. National Film Board of Canada . Retrieved January 16, 2023.