predictable pattern books

Adams, P. There was an old lady who swallowed a fly.
Sydney: Child's Play (International Ltd).

ISBN: 0-85953-018-3

       This book is about an old lady who swallows different animals starting from a fly, then she swallows another animal to capture the one before! It's kind of a "funny" and "weird" book which would certainly provoke children's attention. I would use this book for 3-5 year olds because, it's weird what happens in the story and children would wonder: "how is it possible?", "is she going to die?"
       It's a book with holes very well presented. The illustrations are done excellently, very bright colours, the way it shows the different animals that eat each other. Children would also enjoy the beautiful and attractive ways that have been used in the writing around the holes, they usually like diversities.
       I personally like this book, because it's different from the others, it's almost unusual the way it has been made, very colourful, I also like the happy faces of different characters in the story.
       I would provoke the children's interest by talking about the animals in the story, their way of living, habits, nutrition, sounds they make, the use that we make of them, each animal can be studied in a scientific way suitable for children.

3 ways to present the book:
A. Audience participation: I will ask children to act as each animal, or imitate the sound of it, in this way they will feel part of the story and important, at the same time they learn the art of acting.
B. Reading the story: read out the story by also showing the illustrations to them. Emphasize on the words and punctuations that are more important (ex. questions, exclamations), or sometimes you have to read louder, slower, quieter, these are all the things that make children more involved, hesitate, also feel part of it.
C. Props story: using props for children is usually fun and at the same time interesting. I will prepare props for each character of the story, and will ask children to help me with acting the props and talk like the animals of the story. For the props you can either make them, the accessories could be bought at the dollar store, craft store, or use soft toys in order to convert them into related characters.

Extensions:
A. Talk about all the animals in the story, explain about their characteristic, and discuss what use we make out of these animals in our life.
B. Bring a picture of the old lady, set it in the middle of the classroom, cut out the animals in different sizes and hide them in the class, let children find them and put them in the right order in the old lady's tummy.
C. Talk about the sound each animal makes, how they move, ask children to sound and move like one, talk about the colours of the animals and also their babies.