Shauna April 15, 2011

I Know an Old Teacher by Anne BowenStorytime Tips & Ideas: This month we have been learning all about Pets. I am loving this unit and so are my students. I have so many ideas and photos to share with you, now I just need some more time to share. Everyday during preschool I have a set story time as a part of our schedule. Now, this doesn’t mean that this is the only time I use literature throughout the day. I try to incorporate books into as much of my students learning experience as I can. I always try to make at least one of the books I read to the students have an interactive, hands on experience for them. It gets them moving around, they pay attention better, the comprehend the story more, and they love it!

To achieve this goal I use felt pieces (some I make on my own, others I have purchased from places like Glitterful Felt Stories, that has cute quality felt sets), I print clip art off that goes along with the story (or I draw my own illustrations) and then I attach a piece of magnet onto the back and use it on my magnetic wipe off board, I use puppets (both hand made and store bought), I use stuffed animals, sequencing cards, etc.

I KNEW my students would LOVE the book, I Know an Old Teacher, because of the interesting and eye catching illustrations as well as the cute story line (which they did). Since it fit PERFECTLY with our pet unit, I decided I wanted to get a little creative of how I shared the story with them. The story is about a teacher who decideds to take the class pets home with her over a long break, but after a mishap of a flea falling in her tea, she ends up gobbling up one pet after another. You will be sure to have a few laughs when this book is read outloud.

So I came up with this idea below:

I took a plain brown gift bag I had lying around and I cut a rectangular shape out of the bottom half of the bag. I then took some overhead projector transparency that I had in my art cabinet and I cut out a shape a little bit larger than the rectangular shape on the bag. I then taped the transparency piece to the inside of the bag with clear packaging tape.

While reading the story and as I came to each pet that the teacher swallowed up, I had a different student come up, find the correct pet, and drop it into the bag (like the teacher was swallowing it). Then the students could see what was in the teacher’s tummy through the clear transparency piece on the bag (thank-you to my cute daughter for demonstrating this for me in the photo below). I love the fact that everything I make for my preschool class I can use with my own children and everything I make for my own children I can use in my preschool class. :0) It is a win, win situation.

A warning to you if you have a bit of a weak stomach, there are a couple of creepy crawly illustrations like the spider one below that might make your stomach do flip flops. However, I think the illustrations are what make this book magical and unique.

One of the greatest parts of this Story Prompt is the fact that you can store all of the pieces in the bag, and it folds flat for easy storage. I can’t wait to make these bags for all of my “I Know an Old Lady Who”…books.

As an option you could also make the different pets that go along with the story into puppets. These pets are a part of a whole pet themed unit I am working on and plan to add to my Etsy Store soon. I am adding all of the fun things we are doing in class this month to it.

However, if you CLICK HERE you can save, download, and print everything you need to go along with reading this great book (I Know an Old Teacher). Have fun and I would love to know if you use this download.

I am linking this post to the wonderful link parties on my sidebar. If you would like to share this post, that would be wonderful. Please put a link to this actual post, not the download link. Thanks a bunch! Also, I would love for you to link up to my “All Things Wonderful” Link Party by clicking here.

0 thoughts on “I Know an Old Teacher Book Prompts and Printable”

  1. Hi Shauna! I found your blog over at JDaniel's link up. I love your post and appreciate the downloads too! Really great idea with the bag! I will definitely use it!

    Thanks for sharing!

    Kerri

  2. This is such a great way to retell a story. The book looks like such fun. Thank you so much for sharing in on Read.Explore.Learn.

  3. That bag is genius!!! Found you over at JDaniel4's mon link up. I may have to use this idea in the future. I never heard of that book ogg to search on Amazon
    ~Jada Roo Can Do

  4. How fun!! I will share this with my daughter's preschool teacher. She is always doing games like this. 🙂 Thanks for linking up!
    Cheers!
    Jen

  6. Thank you so much for featuring us in your creative post! I love what you did with the bag. Your children are so lucky to have a teacher with such a creative imagination!

    ~Glitterful Hugs from Glitterful Felt Stories!

  9. What a fun idea! I love this story. Remember the original from when I was little. So fun! I'm off to share this with my Facebook friends. Thanks for sharing this at For the Kids Friday at Sun Scholars. Hope to have you back to link up later this week!

  10. Thank you for this download! I have been trying to find things for my 19 month old daughter for homeschooling (she's developmentally delayed to a 10 month old age) and it's been hard to find stuff that peopled don't want you to pay for!

  11. thanks for the sequencing activity. i'm planning on using it in my extended school year group with special education students this week. i love this book!