Old Black Fly Unit Study
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Old Black Fly Buzzes Around the Alphabet
Old Black Fly's been buzzing around and lands on an alphabet's worth of spilled drips and drops of food. This poem is fun to read aloud with it's lilting rhyme has makes you want to dance.
Use Old Black Fly to start a unit on insects that will inspire reading, writing and scientific experimentation.
Use Old Black Fly to start a unit on insects that will inspire reading, writing and scientific experimentation.
Photo Credit:Old Black Fly (An Owlet Book)
Available on Amazon
Old Black Fly's Table of Contents
Old Black Fly
by Jim Aylesworth
Apple Pie Recipe
Sibley
Buy at AllPosters.com
Old Black Fly's been buzzin around, buzzin around, buzzin around. Old Black Fly's been buzzin around and he's had a very busy bad day. is the way is book starts and the rhythm keeps pulsing along with the fly landing on one spot after another all over the kitchen.
He ate on the crust of the Apple pie.
He bothered the Baby and made her cry.
Shoo fly! Shoo fly! Shooo.
and continues through the alphabet until finally...
SWAT!
Old Black Fly is an absolute must read for toddlers through early grades and adults as well.
Language Arts
Fly Family Reading
Old Black Fly's Favorite Fiction
Photo Credit: The Bug Family
Available on Zazzle
Reading to children is essential to turning them into lifelong readers. Here are some great stories about flies. The story of Old Black Fly is available at your Public Library. You may purchase it on Amazon along with many other wonderful fly related books.
Thank you to Naturegirl7 for the suggestion of Liza Lou And The Yeller Belly Swamp.
Non-Fiction Fly Books
Old Black Fly learns about House Flies
Puck Seated on a Spider's Thread
Available on Amazon
Hang the fish net over the reading nook to display books about flies. This net represents a spider's web.
Add some plush House Flies to represent Old Black Fly.
Though it is difficult to find non-fiction books written specifically about house flies, I keep a collection of books about insects and help the children find the pages with information about house flies.
Sometimes a Fly can change Someone's Whole Life
Amos: The Story of an Old Dog and His Couch
One day as the Old Irish Setter lazes his life away a fly comes along. When Amos swats at it suddenly his whole life is changed!
You won't believe how he suddenly can get around and how that changes the life of the whole family. All because of an old black fly.
This is by far one of my all-time favorite books. It will have you in tears it's so funny.
Old Black Fly's ABC Order Center
Old Black Fly's Alphabet
Illustration For the Letter A from Apple Pie Alphabet
Greenaway, Kate
Buy at AllPosters.com
Make an alphabetical list of the items Aylesworth used in this book to represent each of the letters of the alphabet.
Apple pie,
baby,
cookies,
dog,
eggs,
frosting, and so forth.
Find pictures of each of the items. Glue them onto index cards. Write the name under each picture and laminate
them.1. Pick 5 cards.
2. Put them in ABC order.
3. Write the words on a paper.
Flies at the Picnic Bulletin Board
Photo Credit: Red and White Checked Tablecloth
Available on Amazon
Cover the bulletin board with a Red and White Checked Tablecloth
. Attach picnic food and dishes and then use plastic flies to spell words such as:fly
picnic
sandwich
old
black
Or whatever words you are studying with this Old Black Fly Unit Study.
Just change the word to FLIES!
Old Black Fly Word Wall Pointer
Attach a fly to the end of a pointer. Use the pointer to point to the letters in the Word Wall Words that your are working on. Children love to pretend to be Old Black Fly and use the pointer to point to words and read them as they land on labels all around the room.
Fly and Spider at the Picnic Video
There are no words with this video so it would be great for the kids to make up their own story and write it down.
curated content from YouTube
Fly Word Family
The Word Family Activity Book includes activities for teaching words that rhyme with fly such as:
fly
why
try
shy
You could also make a bulletin board shaped like a sandwich and attach fly cutouts with the fly words on them. To practice these words check out the Cheers on my Word Wall Lens.
Swat the Old Black Fly Word
Hand-Shaped Fly Swatters (Pack of 24)
Available on Amazon
1. On fly shaped accent papers write Old Black Fly vocabulary words.
2. Give 2 children a fly swatter.
3. Call out a word and have the children race to "swat" the word first.
4. The winner chooses a new person to be the swatter.
Fly Swatters can also be used in Read the Room activities as seen in Ms. Levin's Class.
Fly Swatter Spelling Game
Use fly swatters to spell the spelling words called out by your partner.
Spread out a chalkboard sized version of the alphabet and take turns calling out spelling words. Use your fly swatter to swat the letters that spell the word while pretending that the letters of the alphabet are flies buzzing around like Old Black Fly.
Matamoscas: The Fly Swatter Word Game
Old Black Fly Game
Japanese Girl Swatting Fly
Available on Amazon
In this game two teams face off in a relay style running up to to the board to swat the word called out by the teacher and then passing the fly swatter on to the next team member.
Variations:
1.Make this game easier by having the children swat the letters, numbers.
2. Swat the letters to spell the words.
3. Teacher calls out the definition, translation or antonym.
- SWAT IT
- Children take a fly swatter and swat the word (letter, numeral, etc.) as it is said in this rhyme:
There's a word I see.
Swat the word ____.
One, two, three!
A variation of this game can be played by dividing the class into two teams. Give one person from each team a fly swatter. Call out a word. The first person to "swat" the word wins a point for her team. - Matamoscas - Swat the Fly
- Two teams face off to Swat the Words while learning a second language.
- Sight Word Swat
- Students build their sight word vocabulary through the usage of a game called Sight Word Swat. As the teacher says the word aloud twice, students are to swat the word on the game board
Old Black Fly Writes a Letter
Old Black Fly Postage Stamp
Help your children learn about letter writing by writing to family and friends to tell them all about this fun Fly Unit Study. Write a letter to a National Park or Wildlife preserve to ask about flies that they encounter and what times of year are most effected by flies. Write to a pest control company and ask how to prevent infestations of flies.
Don't forget to stamp the letter. Now you can even stamp it with a Housefly Postage Stamp.
Don't forget to stamp the letter. Now you can even stamp it with a Housefly Postage Stamp.
powered by Zazzle.com
Flies in the Garbage Can
Old Black Fly Vocabulary Game
Photo Credit:Gund Sesame Street 12 - Inch Oscar The Grouch
Photo Credit: Garbage with Flies on Maricopa County Environmental Services, Vector Control Division
Use hot glue to glue felt wings to ping pong balls.
Write vocabulary words on the flies with a marker.
Set up a garbage can with the letter i on it.
Put the flies in the garbage can lid.
If the word has a long i as in Fly put it in the garbage. The rest of the flies go in the other garbage can.
Self checking:
Write the answers on a paper and stuff it into an old washed out container with a cover and leave it in the garbage can. Children can take out this container and check the flies.
Science
The Life Cycle of the Common House Fly
The House Fly goes through four stages in it's life cycle.
Photo Credit: Illustration by Debbie Hadley, using drawings from Insects - Their Ways and Means of Living by Robert Evans Snodgrass, U.S. Bureau of Entomology.
These drawings are in the public domain.
Egg:Did you know that in three or four days a female house fly can lay up to 500 eggs? House Fly eggs are white and measure less than half an inch long.
Larvae or maggots:Less than a day later, in even as little as 8 hours the eggs will hatch. The larvae will then begin to consume whatever food they can find. A Maggot prefers 8 - 10 days in a warm and moist habitat.
Pupa: Then the maggot finds a place that is dryer in a higher location and begins to create a reddish-brown skin. After 3 - 6 days it will emerge as an adult House Fly.
Adult: The lifespan of a House Fly is only 15 to 30 days. You may be able to recognize a House Fly as being a female as the females are larger than the males. Females mature and are able to start laying eggs after only tow days. They will continue to lay eggs for about a month. Females are able to start producing eggs after two days of life and will continue to lay eggs for about a month.
If a female House Fly can lay 500 eggs a day for a whole month...
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A Day in the Life of a House Fly
You will find House Flies nearly anywhere you find you find humans or animals. They like garbage, manure or most anything else that left out in a warm environment.
House Flies get their nutrients from spitting saliva on their food, which liquefies it so they can suck it up with their sponge-like mouths.
House Flies get their nutrients from spitting saliva on their food, which liquefies it so they can suck it up with their sponge-like mouths.
Housefly Behavior
- eNaturalist::Friendly Fly?
We've all had insects land on our body and most/all of us find it irritating, to say the least. But unless you actually see an insect land, how does one know that a mosquito, for example, has landed on your arm? In most cases, the tiny hairs on our body "tell" us it's there!- Housefly Behavior
- When they are not flying, flies continually preen themselves, cleaning their eyes with their forelegs and dusting off their legs by rubbing them together. They do this because most of their taste and smell receptors lie on the hair of their legs. -Wikipedia
Watch a fly resting on the windowsill.
Flies have a very highly-evolved evasion reaction which helps to ensure their survival. It is possible to confuse a fly's evasion system by swatting it with two objects simultaneously from different directions. The holes in a fly swatter minimize the air current that warns the fly as being hit, whilst reducing air resistance and increasing speed of the swat. - Wikipedia
Housefly Tag
Try this out by having one child be the housefly and another be the fly swatter. Now have two children be the fly swatters. Was it harder or easier for the fly to evade one or two fly swatters?
In 2008 it was discovered that a fly anticipates the approach of a threat, calculating the angle of attack, and alters its stance ready to make the most appropriate getaway. This evasive action, which allows the fly to jump away in the opposite direction, takes place within 200 ms. -Wikipedia
Flies Live with Humans and Animals
Label the Parts of a House Fly
Photo Credit: Anatomy of a Housefly
on WikiMedia Commons
You will find House Flies nearly anywhere you find you find humans or animals. They like garbage, manure or most anything else that left out in a warm environment.
House Flies get their nutrients from spitting saliva on their food, which liquefies it so they can suck it up with their sponge-like mouths.
Laminate and mount a chart diagramming the parts of the House Fly. This will show how to spell words when writing about flies.
Teaching a Love of Nature
Books for Parents, Homeschoolers and Teachers
Math
Old Black Fly's Math Lesson
Flies at the Picnic
Photo Credit: Sandwich
Clip art licensed from the Clip Art Gallery
on DiscoverySchool.com
Make a workmat with a sandwich on the left and a glass of lemonade on the right. You might glue these onto red checked paper or glue a piece of red checked table cloth to stiff cardboard to make it look like a picnic and 5 or more plastic flies for each child.
1. Pass out Fly Workmats and 5 plastic flies.
2. Students place all five flies on the picture of the sandwich.
3. As the class "How many flies are on the sandwich? (5)
4. "How many flies are on the lemonade? (0)
5. "How many flies are at the picnic? (5)
6. Now everybody say 5+0=5.
7. Model how to write this on the board.
Now move one fly over to the lemonade and ask the same questions.
Continue until 0+5=5.
Variation:
1. Start with 6 flies.
2. Have children write the number sentences.
3. Have children try to discover all the number sentences of the number 8 independently or in pairs or as a part of center time.
This is adapted from an activity in Hands-On Math and was one of my students' favorite math activities. Having flies to move helped them to focus on the math and to retain the number facts.
Old Black Fly Math Workjob
How Many Flies?
When food is left out flies often land on it spreading disease.
1. You will need a bag or two of small plastic flies.
2. Make math mats with cut out shapes picnic foods 1-4" in size.
For example: chicken leg, slice of bread, strawberry, and watermelon slice.
3.Using the plastic flies, estimate how many flies it takes to cover each food and record answer.
1. You will need a bag or two of small plastic flies.
2. Make math mats with cut out shapes picnic foods 1-4" in size.
For example: chicken leg, slice of bread, strawberry, and watermelon slice.
3.Using the plastic flies, estimate how many flies it takes to cover each food and record answer.
Old Black Fly has 6 Legs
Counting by 6's with Old Black Fly
You can practice skip counting the number of legs on flies. Counting by 6's leads to memorization of the six times table.
Social Studies
Old Black Fly likes to Socialize
Keep Old Black Fly off your food
Children Playing in the Kitchen
Buy at AllPosters.com
The easiest way to keep flies out of your home is to keep things clean. Don't leave food lying around, make sure you take out the garbage on a regular basis and wipe up messes right away.
Old Black Fly buzzes around my Farm
When we first drove up to the farm one summer the cows were grazing in the fields and the flies were thicker than molasses in January. From the time that Garner Rix first started to clear the land to the day I chased the old black flies off my porch, the flies have been buzzing around our farm.
Songs, Poems, and Chants
There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed Fly
Old Black Fly and the Old Lady
As you sing the song of the Old Woman who Swallowed a fly, add each of the mentioned animals to her skirt. Soon the children will be singing the song on their own and preforming it in the puppet theater.
The next stage is when you find them reading along with the words in the book.
Old Black Fly Sings and Chants
Counting the Flies
Ten Little Black Flies
by Evelyn Saenz
One little, two little, three little black flies.
Four little, five little, six little black flies.
Seven little, eight little, nine little black flies.
Ten black flies in the house.
Ten little, nine little, eight little black flies.
Seven little, six little, five little black flies.
Four little, three little, two little black flies.
One little black fly...SWAT!
Use plastic flies to act out this poem:
1. Start with 10 flies in your hand.
2. Put one on the table for each number you sing.
3. Swat and remove a fly for each number from 10 to 1.
Variations: Write the Addition and Subtraction sentences you are singing about.
by Evelyn Saenz
One little, two little, three little black flies.
Four little, five little, six little black flies.
Seven little, eight little, nine little black flies.
Ten black flies in the house.
Ten little, nine little, eight little black flies.
Seven little, six little, five little black flies.
Four little, three little, two little black flies.
One little black fly...SWAT!
Use plastic flies to act out this poem:
1. Start with 10 flies in your hand.
2. Put one on the table for each number you sing.
3. Swat and remove a fly for each number from 10 to 1.
Variations: Write the Addition and Subtraction sentences you are singing about.
Old Black Fly is Caught by the 5 Frogs on the Log
Frogs and Flies Song
Five Speckled Frogs Flannel Board
Available on Amazon
Make some frogs and flies, a log and a pond and you are all set to enact the song on the flannel board.
The words to the song or sentence strips can have flannel glued to the back for putting in order.
Arts and Crafts
Old Black Fly's Art Center
This simple craft was made with cut out pieces of felt, pipe cleaners and a clothespin.
Old Black Fly Toilet Paper Tube
Wash Your Recycled Cans
Old Black Fly comes around when food is left out or when the garbage is not washed out well. Making this Fly from a recycled toilet paper tube can be used in conjunction with a unit on recycling and the need to clean all those tin cans and other containers before putting them in the recycling bin or Old Black Fly will be buzzin' around your house.
- Reverse-psychology recycling
- The [N]Zed Word October 27, 2008
The cost of trash in New Zealand and what to do with an empty toilet paper roll.
There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed Fly Center
Sequencing Activity
1. Color and laminate the pictures.
2. Write the names of the animals on the cards.
3. Children write the names of the animals that the Old Woman swallowed in the correct order.
- There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed Fly
- There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed Fly cut and paste project.
The Art of the Old Black Fly
Old Black Fly Drawing Lessons
Adventures of an Art Teacher: Old Black Fly Drawings
A follow the teacher drawing adventure inspired by the book Old Black Fly by Jim Aylesworth.0 points
Old Black Fly Coloring Pages
- House Fly and other Insect Coloring Pages
- Free printable coloring pages for kids to download, print and color. These coloring sheets can also be used as clip art.
- The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Child's Day, by Woods Hutchinson
- Have you ever looked at a fly through a magnifying 108glass or under a microscope? If you haven't, try it sometime. You will see that his legs are covered with little hairs; and it is on these little hairs that the germs lodge. They are too small for you to see except with a very powerful glass; but scientists have proved that they are there, and they have found that there are always typhoid germs among them.
- Fly in the Garbage
- Color the fly, fish bones and other garbage.
Physical Education
House Flies are Fast
Old Black Fly Tag
Close your eyes and have someone else very gently touch the hairs on your arm or leg. This is the way that a house fly detects motion.
Now go out on the playground and play Old Black Fly Tag. One person is the fly swatter and the others are the flies. When a fly is tagged it becomes another fly swatter until all the flies are gone.
For the very young children you can play the Old Black Fly Tickle Game. Hold your baby in your lap and pretend that your finger is a fly. Make a buzzing sound and then have your fly land on all those tickle spots. Lots of giggling fun!
- House Fly Facts
- House Flies are hard to swat because they react to movement five times faster than humans do. Sensitive hairs on their bodies send data directly to the wings, so these flies can take off the instant motion is detected. In humans, the sensory data must usually first be processed by the brain.
- BBC - Parenting - Play and do - Tickling games
- Get your baby giggling with a gentle tickling game.
Old Black Fly is in the Four Wheeler's Online Unit Study Directory
Thank you to the Four Wheelers for including the Old Black Fly in their Online Unit Study Directory.
- Internet Directory of Unit Studies
- The Four Wheelers Internet Directory of Unit Studies contains a list, roughly arranged by subject, of links to unit studies that are published on the Internet.
Evelyn's Hands-on Learning Blog
Look Who's Twittering about Old Black Fly
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- JoelleMeijer
- Have your students create an #illustration inspired by the #story "Old Black Fly" http://t.co/YJOI9Ncy #black #fly
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- emdigangi
- RT @lindalouj: Seriously, old black fly, why must you pester me when you've got the whole library? I've read the book so I know how this is going to end...
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- lindalouj
- Seriously, old black fly, why must you pester me when you've got the whole library? I've read the book so I know how this is going to end...
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Please leave a message for Old Black Fly
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Donnette
Jul 12, 2011 @ 7:03 am | delete
- Hello :) Just popping in to say that I have included this lens on my new lens http://www.squidoo.com/all-about-bugs all-about-bugs
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akumar46
May 18, 2011 @ 9:42 pm | delete
- Old Black Fly used for unit study.Nice and interesting lens.Thanks.
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Tipi
Feb 15, 2011 @ 12:28 pm | delete
- I don't know of anyone else that could make a black flies lens and make it interesting and educational at the same time. What fun! Blessing this, you are so creative.
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Arizona-Snow
Sep 21, 2010 @ 9:58 am | delete
- Wow, and I thought flies were just pests :)
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GramaBarb
Sep 19, 2010 @ 12:00 pm | delete
- I always enjoy a cup of coffee and sit back and read your lens slowly as they are always so enjoyable. This was delightful!
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MsSnow4a
May 15, 2010 @ 8:05 pm | delete
- Wow!! lots of information and fun for the kiddos about the old black fly :) great!!
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susannaduffy
Apr 3, 2010 @ 7:09 pm | delete
- So - there's more to old black flies than you think :)
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Roxanne
Mar 28, 2010 @ 1:40 pm | delete
- Absolutely adorable! I used your felt fly idea to make a math file folder game and purchased some plastic flies at the $ store. You need a file folder, a large die and some black flies.. great for one to one correspondence and counting!
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feasibilitytemp
Mar 6, 2010 @ 9:07 am | delete
- Nice lens it is. Here are so many information about Old Black Fly. Here are also some great links. I will try to browse them.
Thanks
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JaguarJulie Jan 7, 2010 @ 10:34 am | delete
- Ah, that old black fly -- funny that we don't see too much of him here in Jacksonville Florida but those damselflies are a whole 'nuther topic!
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Evelyn_Saenz
Jan 7, 2010 @ 11:52 am | delete
- Thanks for stopping by to visit the Old Black Fly.
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CherylK Oct 25, 2009 @ 9:43 am | delete
- What a cool lens, Evelyn. Flies are disgusting but you've made this into a great science lesson that not only teaches how to keep healthy (cleanliness) but that flies are actually useful (they help reduce the numbers of bad caterpillars). But the best thing that I learned is why it's so darned hard to swat a fly!
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Irenemaria Aug 11, 2009 @ 10:18 am | delete
- Nice work! Funny and smiley =)
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CoolFoto
Aug 11, 2009 @ 10:14 am | delete
- Delightful! Wish you had been one of my teachers. Lens roll to http://www.squidoo.com/garden_pests . Your lens will lighten up the feel of my serious Garden Pests lens. lol
BTW I found you on Face Book.
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AndyPo
Jul 8, 2009 @ 8:47 am | delete
- Great lens
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poddys
May 22, 2009 @ 10:33 pm | delete
- This is another really great lens anda great educational resource. 5*****.
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Treasures-By-Brenda
May 10, 2009 @ 6:34 pm | delete
- I remember the song, I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly very well. Thanks for lensrolling to my ant-filled dinner menu!
Brenda
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Jimmie
Feb 3, 2009 @ 1:15 am | delete
- Flies also make for a wonderful nature study topic for those living in the city with few natural resources around them.
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naturegirl7 Oct 27, 2008 @ 8:46 am | delete
- Love it! Have you ever read Liza Lou and the Yeller Belly Swamp by Mercer Mayer? I'm not sure if it's still in print, but I think it is. Welcome to the Naturally Native Squids group. Don't forget to add your lens links to the appropriate plexos and vote for them.
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spirituality Oct 20, 2008 @ 6:52 am | delete
- Great lens as always. Bugs are a great theme to start from.
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About the Author of this Lens
Evelyn's Hands-On Learning Blog.
Old Black Fly tickles my senses. I love the rhythm and rhyme because it just wants to make you dance.
Find out what I'm up to when I'm not dancing with the flies:
Photo Credit: Ms. Frizzle Doll
Available on ZooScape
Old Black Fly tickles my senses. I love the rhythm and rhyme because it just wants to make you dance.Find out what I'm up to when I'm not dancing with the flies:
Flies in the Kingdom
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My passion is teaching and finding ways to teach children in fun, hands-on, creative ways. The unit studies I make on Squidoo reflect my view that learning... more »
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