One of my favorite Halloween read-alouds is There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Ghost by Lucille Colandro. This spooky-silly story is perfect for Halloween and a fun way to sprinkle some festive vocabulary into the speech room! This time around, the Old Lady takes on a spooky twist—she gobbles up a ghost, a bone, a goblin, and other Halloween surprises! Just like always, everything builds to a wacky finale that will leave your students giggling. Keep reading for a collection of fun and engaging There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Ghost activities!
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I love using this series in speech-language therapy, because children are already familiar with the character and the sequence of events. This background knowledge promotes comprehension! This book companion (along with all of my resources) can be found in The Speech is Sweet Club! It’s a membership for speech-language pathologists!
There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Ghost Retelling Activities
To kick things off, I created three different retelling activities so students get plenty of hands-on practice. One of my favorites is the “feed granny” game—students retell the story as they slip picture cards into a granny figure. I like to pair students up for this: one holds granny while the other practices retelling. It’s an engaging way to keep everyone involved while also hearing a peer model the language.
The rest of the group stays busy too! Instead of waiting around, they work on story maps or a cut-and-glue sequencing page. Having multiple options ensures that every student is practicing at the same time. Therapy time is far too valuable for turn-taking delays, and these activities make sure students stay focused, active, and learning!
Feed Me Activity
This game comes with flash cards (in color and black & white) that feature the items that the Old Lady swallowed. These can also be used for pre-teaching/reviewing the vocabulary found in the book! Students can feed these cards to a cut-out of granny! You can tape granny’s head to a mini garbage can, a tissue box, or simply have the students take turns holding it.
These cards can also be used to work on describing, sentence formulation, and more!
Story Maps
This activity comes in both color and black-and-white! The black-and-white sheet is perfect for a “spooky” take-home assignment or extra practice at home. In the cut-and-paste version, students snip out the ghostly events and glue them in the right order to bring the story back to life!
Clip Card Activities for There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Ghost
I brewed a batch of spooky clip cards to match this book! Students “clip” their answers with a clothespin—an easy way to make practice hands-on and add a little Halloween fun.
Comprehension Activities
These clip cards focus on WH-questions from the story! Some cards provide two answer choices, while others include three. With different levels of support, there’s an option for every learner.
Following Directions
Following directions is such a common goal, so I make sure to build it into all my Old Lady book companions. This story is perfect for practicing temporal concepts—first, then, before, after, and more. To support this, I created 20 different cards! There is a mixture of 2-step and 3-step directions!
These cards also come with visual cues!
There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Ghost Worksheets
I couldn’t leave out the no-prep fun! Just print and go for pages that target why questions, rhyming, retelling, and even open-ended practice. The open-ended sheets are my favorite, because they’re boo-tifully flexible—you can use them with any goal! They were designed with bingo daubers in mind, but you can just as easily bring out markers, crayons, or even tiny Halloween erasers to cover the spots.
This book is also perfect for working on similes and other figures of speech!
Interactive Notebook Activities
I’m still obsessed with interactive notebook activities! And don’t worry if you don’t have notebooks—students can just as easily use loose-leaf or construction paper. The activities target story elements, describing, plurals, and plenty of other skills.
There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Ghost by Lucille Colandro is filled with rich vocabulary words like creep, boast, and motion. Your students will love this pocket of vocabulary practice—and the best part is, they can revisit the puzzles and put them together again and again!
These interactive notebook activities cover so many skills including story elements, plurals, comparing/contrasting, vocabulary, and describing!
There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Ghost Flip Book Companion
You’ll also find a literature flip book in this resource! It’s a versatile tool that covers comparing/contrasting, sequencing, writing, and comprehension all in one.
Flip books make learning more interactive and memorable. Students love assembling them! I had a student who was always so pumped to get a new flip book to show-off to his teacher!
Looking for a way to add some Halloween fun to your speech therapy plans? There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Ghost is packed with laughter, spooky vocabulary, and endless opportunities to target speech and language goals. This round-up of There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Ghost activities will keep your students engaged while making your October sessions extra memorable.
Need a copy of this book? Here is a convenient Amazon link for you: There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Ghost
Where to find the book companion? There are a few options:
- The Speech is Sweet Club – home to all of my current and future book companions!
- There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Ghost Companion – book companion in my TPT Shop!
- There Was an Old Lady Bundle – a money-saving bundle found in my TPT Store!
Looking for more Halloween speech therapy activities? Check out these blog posts:
Halloween Speech Therapy Activities: Mega Guide
Halloween Worksheet Buddies Crafts
Halloween Articulation Vocabulary Freebie
Hallo-wiener Freebie
Spooky Wheels on the Bus Activities
Turkey Trick or Treat Freebie
Pumpkin Books for Speech Therapy
Ten Timid Ghosts Freebie
There Was an Old Mummy Who Swallowed a Spider Activities
Bone Soup Speech Therapy Ideas
Witch Finger Speech Therapy Crafts
The Night Before Halloween Freebie
Looking for some more Old Lady fun? Check out these blog posts:
There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Shell
There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves
There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat
Thank you for stopping by! Have a great day!
