There Was an Old Pirate Who Swallowed a Fish
follows the familiar story line of the Old Lady (maybe they're related?). In this story, the Old Pirate eats:
a fish
a bird
a map
some gold
a chest
a plank
a sail
a mast
a ship
When I read this story, I started by showing them the cover. They all guessed that the story was about a pirate. Next, we talked about how they knew it was a pirate. Some of the kids needed a bit more scaffolding for this (e.g., "How did you know he was a pirate and not a firefighter?"). Next I read them the title and waited for someone to draw the connection to the Old Lady stories we had read earlier in the year. Inevitably, someone did! I asked what they thought a pirate might eat (e.g., what objects do you associate with a pirate?). Finally, we read the story.
My kids really liked this story, especially one line "Yo-ho-ho! Watch his belly grow!" I told them it was their job to say that line each time it occurred in the story. Is it making sense now why I wanted a tag for the ProxTalker to say "Yo-ho-ho"? (Missed that post, check it out HERE.)
Since my kids get to feed the old lady whenever I read one of her stories, I had to create a pirate that could be fed! (What is it about feeding things that's so motivating to kids?!?). This Old Pirate doesn't look a whole lot like the pirate in the story, but he is old:
Not a fan? I added this cuter pirate if you prefer:
And here are the items to feed to the pirate:
You can grab this freebie HERE. If you download, please leave me a comment and let me know what you think! Have you seen this book before? What's your favorite "There Was an Old ___ Who Swallowed a ___"?
