There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Bat Activities

One of my favorite Halloween read-alouds is There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat by Lucille Colandro! This spooky-silly classic is perfect for bringing laughter and language to your October speech therapy sessions. It’s filled with festive vocabulary and a predictable pattern that keeps students engaged from start to finish. In this story, the Old Lady goes on another hilarious adventure—this time she swallows a bat, an owl, a cat, and more Halloween surprises! Its repetitive structure makes it ideal for working on sequencing, retelling, and prediction, while the silly verbs and themed nouns are perfect for expanding vocabulary and sentence formulation. Keep reading for a variety of There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat activities that will make this story come alive in your speech room!

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I believe book series are perfect for children with language disorders. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, recurring characters equip our students with valuable background knowledge—a critical ingredient for comprehension. Whenever I pull out an Old Lady book, my students instantly recognize her and start chatting about the other stories they’ve read. It’s such a powerful connection! This book, like the rest of the series, is a wonderful tool for building language skills and engaging students in meaningful learning. This book companion can be found in my membership for SLPs—The Speech is Sweet Club!

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat Retelling Activities

To kick things off, I created three different story 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—such a fun and interactive way to review events. I like to pair students up for this activity: one holds granny while the other retells the story. It keeps everyone involved and gives students a chance to hear a peer model the language.

The rest of the group stays busy too! Instead of waiting for a turn, they can complete a story map or a cut-and-glue sequencing page. Having multiple options ensures that every student is actively practicing. These activities keep students focused, engaged, and learning from start to finish!

Feed Me Activity

This game includes flashcards (in both color and black-and-white) featuring all the items the Old Lady swallows! They’re perfect for pre-teaching or reviewing the vocabulary from the book. Students can “feed” the cards to a cutout of Granny for an extra dose of fun! You can tape Granny’s head to a mini garbage can, attach it to a tissue box, or simply have students take turns holding it during the activity.

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 versions! The black-and-white sheet makes a perfect “spooky” take-home assignment or extra practice for home. In the cut-and-paste version, students cut out the Halloween-themed events and glue them in the correct order to bring the story back to life!

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat Craft

Here’s another fun story retelling option! I love incorporating crafts and fine motor skills when possible! For this activity, students cut out the story events and glue them onto their bat to create a hands-on visual retelling.

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat Clip Card Activities

I brewed up a batch of spooky clip cards to pair with this book! Students use clothespins to “clip” their answers—an easy, hands-on way to make practice interactive while adding a touch of Halloween fun.

Comprehension Activities

These clip cards target WH-questions from the story! Some cards offer two answer choices, while others include three—providing just the right level of support for every learner. With built-in differentiation, it’s easy to adapt this activity to meet each student’s needs.

Interactive Notebook Activities

I’m still obsessed with interactive notebook activities! Don’t worry if you don’t have notebooks—students can easily complete these on loose-leaf or construction paper instead. These activities target story elements, describing, plurals, and a variety of other language skills, making them both fun and functional for your Halloween speech therapy sessions!

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat by Lucille Colandro is packed with rich vocabulary words like trick, swoop, and spook! 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 for extra reinforcement!

These interactive notebook activities target a wide range of skills, including story elements, plurals, comparing and contrasting, vocabulary, and describing!

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat Flip Book Companion

You’ll also find a literature flip book in this resource! It’s a versatile tool that targets comparing and contrasting, sequencing, writing, and comprehension—all in one engaging activity.

This flip book companion for There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat makes learning interactive and memorable. Students love assembling them and showing off their finished work! I’ll never forget one of my students who was always so excited to get a new flip book—he couldn’t wait to share it with his teacher!

Looking for a way to add some Halloween fun to your speech therapy plans? There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat is bursting with laughter, spooky vocabulary, and endless opportunities to target speech and language goals. This collection of There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat activities will keep your students engaged and make your October sessions unforgettable!

Need a copy of this book? Grab it on Amazon: There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat Book

Where to find this 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 Bat Book Companion – book companion in my TPT shop!
• There Was an Old Lady Bundle – a money-saving bundle found in my TPT store!

More Halloween Speech Therapy Activities