I Know an Old Teacher by Anne Bowen and illustrated by Stephen Gammell is kind of a twisted version of "I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly". (As if that isn't twisted enough, when you think about it!)On the very first page of the book, there is a picture of a teacher writing a note to her class on the chalkboard:
"Dear Class, Since it's a long weekend, I'll take our pets home with me. Don't worry- I promise to take good care of them. -- Miss Bindley"
The next page shows Miss Bindley at her home on Saturday with a teacup in her hand. "I know an old teacher who swallowed a flea. It fell from her hair and plopped into her tea." Of course, then she has to swallow a spider to gobble the flea. On each page afterwards, she swallows another class pet to eat the one swallowed previously. Pretty gross, huh? There is a cute note at the end of the book that says, "No animals were harmed in the making of this book."
Minilessons:
1. Share with your students the original "I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly". Some students may not know it, believe it or not. You may want to have them model a story after this one: I Know an Old ____________ Who Swallowed a ____________.
2. Presentation: The presentation of the words is very playful. The letters almost look like they are cut and pasted. Some are lower case, some are capital, some are thick, some are thin. Some are big and some are small. Discuss with your students how this adds to the overall feeling of the book.
3. Functional Fragments: They're everywhere!
4. Types of sentences: There's a nice assortment of declarative, exclamatory, and interrogative sentences.
5. Cause and effect
6. Sequencing
This book is a bit creepy, but your kids will love it!
