There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe | Nursery Rhyme Resources

Let’s take a closer look at this collection of the There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe nursery rhyme resources. The combination of printable activities will help your kids build language, math, rhyming, vocabulary, reading, and fluency skills.  

These resources are a fun way to engage your active learners in Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes. 

At the end of the post, you will find links to other popular nursery rhymes posts. 

The Origin of There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe

This classic rhyme about an old lady and a household of high-spirited children dates back to the eighteenth century.

There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe Lyrics

Use in musical games or as a learning tool. There are endless ways for your eager children will have fun with this rhyme about a little old woman.

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe.

She had so many children, she didn’t know what to do.

She gave them some broth without any bread;

Then whipped them all soundly and put them to bed.

The earliest version from Joseph Ristson’s Gammer Gurton has the harsher last line of “She whipp’d all their bums, and sent them to bed.”

Marjorie Ainsworth Decker published the Christian version of the rhyme in “The Christian Mother Goose Book” (1978). The Christian version for young readers is as follows:

There was an old woman

Who lived in a shoe,

She had so many children,

And loved them all, too.

She said, “Thank you Lord Jesus,

For sending them bread.”

Then kissed them all gladly

and sent them to bed.

There Was an Old Woman Bundle (PreK-1st Grade)

If you/re in a hurry, and need to print these homeschool or classroom activities immediately, you can purchase this There Was an Old Woman Bundle.  

The bundle includes all of the resources listed below. Teachers and parents love the bundle to save them time and money.  Grab it HERE or on TPT.

Write the Room

This Nursery Rhyme Write the Room is an interactive, hands-on, activity to build vocabulary, reading, writing, rhyming, and concepts of print.

PreK, Kindergarten, and first grade will love this nursery rhyme write the room, identifying main characters and objects then writing the words on the recording sheet.

2 Levels are included for easy differentiation.

Choose a level, post the picture cards around the room, and the students become eager to record the nursery rhyme vocabulary on their record sheet. Great for visual and kinesthetic learners.

• Level 1 vocabulary picture cards have the word printed on the bottom.
• Level 2 cards DO NOT have the word on the card. Instead, these are for the kids who want to try and spell them using inventive spelling.

Post the picture cards around the room, and watch as the students become eager to write their favorite nursery rhyme characters on their record sheet. Great for visual and kinesthetic learners.

Ways to Use Write the Room:

• Vocabulary Write the Room
• Writing Center
• Supplemental to Rhyming lessons
• Nursery Rhyme center
• Nursery Rhyme Sensory Bin
• Pocket Chart Cards for Retelling and Sequencing
• Sub plans
• tutoring
• Extra language arts practice at home / homework activity

Nursery Rhyme Sequencing Cards 

Your kids are going to love retelling There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe Nursery Rhymes Sequencing worksheet.

• Read / Retell
• Cut and paste sequencing picture cards
• Draw a picture

The printable sequencing worksheet has a set of 4 picture cards.

A 4-sequence puzzle is great for young children in Prek, Kindergarten, and First Grade to retell short stories, folk tales, etc.

The kids will read, sequence, and draw a picture of this popular nursery rhyme.

Simply print and go! No prep, and easy differentiation!!

Give your advanced kids a challenge with writing a sentence about their favorite part rather than drawing a picture.

There Was an Old Woman Build a Poem

Build a Poem is an interactive pocket chart center to build the classic nursery rhyme, 

This is the type of pocket chart center the kids WANT to go back to, over and over. After you display the short rhyme, and recite it a couple times, they become eager to build the poem using the word cards.

Every word is printed on a separate card, with a purple glitter border, and small graphics of a shoe house that represent this favorite rhyme.

The matching clipart is great for organizing, sorting, and to keep students from misplacing them with other familiar nursery rhymes.

There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe Printables

These printable poems are great to display as the poem of the day, or poem of the week, in reading groups. 

In addition to the There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe Bundle, you can also find these poems in the Black and White and Colored Nursery Rhymes bundles.  

Now only will your kids love these fun poetry activities, they will also love to read other nursery rhyme books.

At the end of this post, you will find a link to see our favorite nursery rhyme book list.

There Was an Old Woman Color by Codes

Practice shapes, numbers to 10, letters, and sight words with these Nursery Rhymes, Color by Code printables.

Included in the Color by Code set:

You will get one nursery rhyme coloring page for each skill listed below.

• Shapes
• Numbers to 10
• Alphabet
• Sight Words

(Answer keys included)

These are perfect as homework, morning work, practice sheets for small groups or tutoring, and a fun ELA center activity. Perfect for Prek, kindergarten, and first grade review.

Bundle of There Was an Old Woman Activities 

Now that you’ve seen all of the fun resources, you know how much fun the kids will have! To help save you money and time, I have put together a Bundle of There Was an Old Woman printable activities..  

Purchase the bundle of printables from the Little Learning Corner Store or on TPT.  

Thanks so much for sticking around and learning about these resources! Each month, I will be releasing a new collection of nursery rhymes. Be sure to come back for more or sign up for the Little Learning Corner Newsletter for updates. 

Before you go, here are more posts you’ll love:

34 Best Nursery Rhymes for Kids

50 Best Nursery Rhyme Books for Kids

 There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe