THE LADY WHO SWALLOWED A FLY
Language ideas:  
--Look at other versions of this story/song such as:
1.  Steven Kellogg’s THERE WAS AN OLD LADY
2.  Joanna Cole’s GOLLY GUMP
3.  Pam Adams’ THERE WAS AN OLD LADY
4.  Alison Jackson’s I KNOW AN OLD LADY WHO SWALLOWED A PIE
5.  Nick Bantock’s THERE WAS AN OLD LADY (pop up)
6.  Jan Pienkowski’s OH MY A FLY! (pop up)
7.  Colin and Jacqui Hawkins’ I KNOW AN OLD LADY
--Make up your own new ending to this story/song:  she sneezed, barfed, dreamt it all, yawned, laughed it out
--Make up your own sequel to the book (as in the lady who swallowed  a pie)
--Make up your own stories going from small to large or large to small

Math and Science Ideas:
--Plan  nesting activities  going from  small  to large and large to small
--Plan  measuring  activities:  two smalls make a medium, two mediums make a large, etc.
--Add  and subtract making  a grouping larger and smaller  using  various  items  and a scale

Craft ideas:
--Make  a  puppet version of the old lady out of a paper bag or sock and add a pouch or pocket to act as her stomach.  Attach the objects to be placed in with  a string  or safety pins or velcrox  to add on or take away.

THE LADY WITH AN ALLIGATOR PURSE
Language ideas:
--Talk about other things you can put inside the purse to make Tiny Tim feel better.
--Talk about measles and mumps and penicillin.  How can you change this part of the rhyme to update it?

Games:
--Make up some patty cake patterns with a friend.
--Play the Alligator Purse game, using a nurse’s hat, a play stethoscope, and a purse.

Craft ideas:
--Make a purse out of a paper bag.  Cut the handles out or find paper bags with the handles attached.  Turn the bag into your own purse, whatever kind you want.  Make objects to go inside like cut out hamburgers, sunglasses,  flowers,  medicine.  Then play the alligator  purse game.

POSSUM COME A’KNOCKIN’
(based on the book by Nancy Van Laan)

Language ideas:
--What unusual creatures have visited your house and yard?  Make up and tell your story.
--Discuss  what nocturnal is.  What’s the opposite?
--Discuss what it means to play possum.

Science ideas:
--Study how and where animals sleep and what kind of homes/nests they make.
--Study possum babies and other animal baby habits.
--What other animals “hang” and by what body part?  Create a “hanging” zoo.
--Find pictures of animals and their habitats and create an animal habitat collage.
--Talk about how every animal in nature has their own special habitat that is affected by change.  What kind of changes do we as humans make that might affect the animal’s habitat.
--Visit a nature center or preserve or animal hospital.

Games:
--Play the possum game:  children make statues and the rest of the children walk around them and try to make them move or laugh.
--Play the possum game with another person, staring  at each other to see who blinks first.

Craft Ideas:
-- Draw a picture of all the different characters in the story.
--Draw a picture of a possum, cut him out and put all the possums hanging upside down on your classroom tree.

WHAT DID I PUT IN MY POCKET?
(based on the poem by Beatrice Schenck de Regniers)
Language ideas:
--Play with the sounds of words and the sound that things make (alliteration and onomatopoeia
--Describe how these things might feel (adjectives)
--Make up things to put in  your pocket and add some descriptive adjectives:  clinky clanky coins;  munchy crunchy potato chips; slippery slimy  spaghetti

Math ideas:
--Add and subtract items to put in your pocket.
--Learn the sequence or order of things put in.

Science ideas:
--Make a sensory box.  Touch what’s in the box (put a slit in the lid) and try to guess what you feel. 
--Put on blindfolds and try to guess what you’re smelling  or tasting.
--Try  experiments  mixing things together.  What mixes and what doesn’t?
--Taste molasses, honey, maple syrup.  What are the differences?
--Make molasses cookies.
--Have an ice cream party and try putting different things on your ice cream.

Crafts:
--Make  chocolate pudding finger paint.
--Make pockets out of construction paper  and staple them to a piece of cardboard (but not the top.)  Put cut out objects inside .
--Learn  how to sew using straight stitches and lacing stitches.  Make laminated lacing cards that can be reused.