Summary

This is the third in a series of diaries by Doreen Cronin, the other two being Diary of a worm and Diary of a spider. Fly has gone from an egg to a maggot to a young fly, and wants to be a super hero. In Fly’s diary, we not only learn about what Fly does each day, but also some interesting facts about flies in general.

Activities

1. Choose four of the 14 facts about flies that can be found in this book. In an Eight-page book, write one on each page, beginning with the third page. Write a paragraph about each of these five cats. Make your cover and title page on pages one and two. Make the credits page on page seven. Write a summary paragraph on the back cover that will entice others to read your book.

2. Turn this book into a Reader’s Theatre script and practice it with your friends. Characters could be the Narrator, Fly, Mother Fly, Worm, Spider, Grandfather Spider, and the Babysitter. When you have perfected your script, perform it for your classmates or another class.

3. Compare what Grandfather Spider ways about the food chain to The spider and the fly by Mary Howitt and Tony DiTerlizzi.

4. Draw the life cycle of a fly. (egg, larva/maggot. pupa, adult)

5. What problems in history did maggots cause?

6. Learn more about flies online. Once you have read through some of the Insects - Flies website, create a chart that contains information about the positive aspects of flies and the negative aspects of flies.

7. In ancient Egypt, around 2400 BC, the fly was a symbol of bravery. According to Heiderose and Andreas Fischer-Nagle in their book, The housefly, "Flies made of gold were presented to soldiers who had been courageous in battle" (p.6). Learn more about the role flies played in the ancient world.

8. Choose another insect and write a diary about the insect.

9. Younger students: Sing the Shoo Fly song. Create motions to go with the song.
   Older students: After reading other books about flies, synthesize the information into a song or rap about flies.

About the Author

• official website of Doreen Cronin with bio, newsletter

• Pippin biography

• bio and booklist with awards won

• bio (1 page pdf file)

• Candlewick bio for Harry Bliss

• Harry Bliss’ biography

More for the teacher

• Weston Woods Productions has made an animated DVD of Diary of a worm and Diary of a spider (8 minutes each). A viewing guide for each is online as a pdf file with activities for before view ing and after viewing: for Diary of a spider; for Diary of a worm

Links to other online guides for Diary of a Worm.

Assessment

Other related books:

• Diary of a spider by Cronin, Doreen. Quiz #101233 EN; Book Level 2.5; Points= 0.5.
• Diary of a worm by Cronin, Doreen. AR Quiz #72276 EN; Book Level 2.8; Points= 0.5. Book Adventure Level 2. Reading Counts Level 2.4; Points 1. Lexile Level 360. Guided Reading Level K. Flesch/Kincaid 3.