Book of the Week: There Was An Old Woman Who Swallowed a Chick

Lucille Colandro's book There Was An Old Woman Who Swallowed a Chick is pretty awesome. Perfect for Easter time. It is another spring/Easter book that we have been reading non stop. We decided to make our own Easter basket today... copying the sequence (for the most part) of what happens in the book.

Materials Needed: dot markers, glue, tape, stickers, ribbon, grass/straw, chick (we used Peeps), old box (we recycled a waffle box), tissue paper, scissors, plastic eggs

Directions:

1. We made our basket first since it needed more time to dry (even though the Old lady doesn't eat a basket till mid story)

Start buy cutting the end of the box off and then cutting a strip of cardboard for the handle.

2. Cut strips of tissue paper.

3. Add glue to the box. We did one side at a time.

4. Rip up the tissue paper and stick it onto the box to create a layered look.

My little guy was proud of how this turned out. I had to help since he was bored after the 3rd side.

5. Start reading the story and start adding items to the basket. First was a chick! We added a chick Peep to our basket... and then we ate one 🙂

6. Next we pulled grass out of the bag and added lots of it to our basket. As we read, I had my son tell me what we needed to add next.

7. Hide eggs around the house. Have your child try and find them... and then put them in the basket.

8. Jelly beans go next! We ate a handful and put a few in our basket!

9. Cover the handle with tissue paper, let it dry, and then tape it to the basket.

10. While we let the handle dry, we decorated our basket with stickers.

10. Next, add a bow! We taped it to the side of the basket (I made the bow and taped it... after the stickering, my son took a break to go indoor bowling- he is obsessed right now)

11. Paint the outside of the basket with a few dot markers. My little guy was intrigued by this (he loves making a mess) and came back to do this part.

Once we were done, we talked about all the objects in our Easter baskets! Then we read the book again and talked about what would come next...

Our next job is to give our basket to the Easter bunny. 🙂 My son says that he really wants to take it to him and he thinks that the Easter bunny will really like it.

We would definitely recommend this book if you are looking for a fun read this month!