A silly and a slightly gross retelling of the old nursery rhyme. Gross to parents and adults, but loads of fun to the children screaming "eww." Great for Halloween read a-louds. ( )

Honestly I found this kind of disturbing, and I have no idea what my 2.5yo thought of it. The original ("I know an old lady who swallowed a fly") gets *so* absurd (swallowing a cow, a horse, etc.) that it's not as disturbing. But here it's a teacher swallowing classroom pets, that are, actually, swallowable (snake, spider, lizard). So, probably brilliant for someone, but for me, umm, ick. ( )

This is a fiction story that tells all these different silly things the teacher can eat such as a spider, fish, lizard, snake, etc. At the end of the book the students ask if she can eat a student. She replies no. I think this is a cute book that gets children over the fears of school and their teachers. The illustration was bright and colorful which I think is important in children's books. The pictures show the teacher with her hair sticking up on her head. I thought that was cute. I believe I will read this book to my students every year during the first week. It is definitely a good way to break the ice. I just wish the book was a little longer and maybe went into detail about the children being afraid or something. ( )

Summary:
"I Know an Old Teacher" is a story of an old teacher who eats lots of different animals. The story all starts with a flea that fell in her tea, which lead to eating a spider, fish, rat, snake, and lastly their classroom lizard Lizzle. The story ends with the old teacher saying that she will never eat a student.

Personal Reaction:
This picture book has great repetition and also kinda grossed me out. (Just Joking) The only animal that was wierd was the rat and how it looked going into the old teacher's mouth. I would totally read this out loud to kids.

Classroom Extension:
If the school was ever gonna make a trip to the zoo, I would read this to my students as a introduction to getting ready to go to the zoo. I would then tell my students that we will be seeing so many other great animials. Also, I would use this book as an halloween book.

Summary: This book is about a teacher who swallows a flea and then swallows other things to get rid of the things she swallows. Her students are stunned by everything that she swallows, and wonders if it is possible to swallow what she does.

Personal Reaction: I would be one of the kids that would be really shocked if my teacher starts swallowing the class pets. This book is kind of gross, but kids love this kind of stuff. I know I would be laughing or saying yucky if my teacher started swallowing pets.

Classroom Extension: The class could draw a big belly and draw different things that are weird to swallow, and then describe the different objects they made their teacher swallow. You could also use this story to teach kids that there are certain things you can and can not swallow.