When The Fly Flew In by Lisa Westberg Peters - Teaching Ideas



A little boy is supposed to clean his room but his animals are sleeping so peacefully, so he decides to do it later. As the animals sleep a fly comes in and disrupts their slumber, causing the animals to create a ruckus. In the midst of chasing the fly the room is somehow cleaned.

Here are a list of reading skill and strategy questions and ideas that work nicely with this book. I have also created a text-to-self connection freebie to use with this book.

Reading level: 2.5
Theme: animals
Genre: general fiction

Suggested Vocabulary: streaked, dust-mop cat, cobwebs

Reading skills and strategies:
  • asking questions - {possible questions before} The fly flew in where? {possible questions during} Was the dog making a mess in the boys room? Was the cat hurt? How come the hamster was not in a cage? {possible questions after} How did the room get cleaned?
  • author's point of view - Third person
  • author's purpose - entertain {evidence} The pictures are done from different perspectives. The dog went crazy chasing after the fly. The end of the story says the room was clean but it looked like animals were making a mess. These are all silly things that make the story entertaining.
  • beginning, middle, end - {most important event from beginning} The fly flew into the room. {most important event from middle} All the sleeping animals woke and tried to catch the fly {most important event from end} When the fly left, the room was clean.
  • cause and effect - Why did the boy not clean his room? because all the animals were sleeping. Why did the dog wake up? because the fly flew by his eye. Why was the cat tired? because he was chasing the fly and got tired. Why did the hamster not care about the fly? because he only wanted to eat the crumbs. Why did the parakeet watch the fly closely? because watching flies is a birds business.
  • connections - {possible text-to-self connections} Having one of the animals listed in the story. Being bothered by a fly.
  • drawing conclusions & inferencing - What do you think the boy will say when he walks into his room? {text clues} The picture of the room is cleaner at the end of the story than at the beginning of the story. {what I know} If I left my dirty room and walked in later to find it clean I would think that someone cleaned it for me. {my conclusion} I think the boy is going to say "Wow! Who cleaned my room?"
  • predict - What do you think the fly is going to do in the room? Do you think the boy will know it was the animals that cleaned his room?
  • problem & solution - {problem #1} There was a fly in the room. {solution} All the animals chased the fly till it left the room. {problem #2} The boy needed to clean his room but the animals were sleeping so he waited. {solution} When the fly came in, the animals started chasing him which resulted in the room getting clean.
  • sequencing - The boy needed to clean his room but decided to wait because all the animals were sleeping. The fly bothered the dog. The dog chased the fly. The fly bothered the cat. The cat chased the fly. The fly found a cookie crumb. The hamster wanted the crumb. The fly flew by the parrot. The parrot chased the fly. All the animals were tired and fell back to sleep. The fly left the room. The room was clean. 
  • story elements - list title, author, character's, setting, beginning, middle, end, or problem & solution.
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Happy reading!

3 comments

  1. GREAT resource for this precious book. Thanks!!

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  2. Amazing information you have provided. So happy to have found your blog and I can't wait to look at EVERYTHING! Thanks for sharing!

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  3. This is awesome!!! Thank you SO MUCH for sharing such a great activity for this wonderful story!! Am very glad I found your blog!!

    Warmest Wishes,

    Erin

    ennie0305@gmail.com

    Kindergarten Dragons

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Thoughts and comments are always welcome!