A Halloween SPOOK-TACULAR!

     “This is Halloween! This is Halloween!”  Have I told you lately that I absolutely love Halloween!  Although Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas is not one of my favorite movies, the music from this movie always seems to get stuck in my head right before Halloween!  Halloween music is one of my favorite things about Halloween, besides the candy and dressing up!  This year, I chose to use some classics including “Monster Mash,” “Witch Doctor,” and the “Munsters Theme Song."  I also had a request for the "A-H Alphabet Song" by Kidzup Educational Music, so I went ahead and made a video for it as
well.

                                                  Munsters Theme Song
                                      This song can be purchased on iTunes.

                                             
                                    A-H Alphabet Song by Kidzup Educational Music
                                         This song can be purchased on iTunes.

     As mentioned last week, this week’s theme was letter-inspired, but HALLOWEEN-inspired!  I always like to do a little something special for the holidays, and Halloween is just so fun that it is hard to pass up having a big celebration.  One of my favorite things that we do for Halloween is to invite all of the kids to come in their costumes!  This year I had a wide-range of characters including a baby Frankenstein, all of the Disney princesses, Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf, as well as a few Spidermans, a couple of Iron Mans, and one awesome Bat Man!  My favorite?  Well that probably belongs to a little boy whose mom made him dress up as a monkey.  If looks could kill, well, I think Q’s mom would be dead!

     On special Story Time days, I like to do things a bit different.  We don’t focus as much on “education” as much as we do on fun.  I will still do a couple of songs that may include body awareness or actions to get the wiggles out, but mostly I focus on how much of the holiday I can put into that day.

     This year, in lieu of a craft, I had my kids break up into teams of three and make a jack-o-lantern.  I created large pumpkins, and then cut out different facial pieces.  The kids then had to figure out what piece of the pumpkin they had, and then glue it to the pumpkin.  This was fun because not only did it incorporate recognizing facial features as well as the teamwork component, but really, the beauty of the pumpkins came from the fact that no pumpkin was the same.  Below are a few pictures of our “Picasso-like” pumpkins.  I love them and used them all to decorate the library.

     Although I decided to go with the group pumpkins this year, I did come across a few great crafts that I thought might be fun!  I hope you enjoy some of my favorites!

Pumpkin and Ghost string decorations found here.

Cheesestick fingers? It doesn't get much better than that.  Found here.

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A health Halloween option!  Found here.

     Besides a craft, I also like to give out a little edible treat.  I have discovered that “baby” cupcakes, or mini-cupcakes, are the best treat for this age group.  They are able to eat them quickly without getting too full.  One thing to note… always be aware of food allergies.  I do have one little girl with an egg allergy.  Her mother offered to bring her own snack for that day and it was greatly appreciated!

     What’s Halloween without a couple of great Halloween books?  This year, I chose to read one of my favorites, 10 Trick or Treaters by Janet Schulman.  This book is one of my go-to books when it comes to Halloween.  I really like that you can make it as scary as you want while also giving the “education” component of counting numbers.  This book is also great because it isn’t your standard “count to ten” book, instead of going from one to ten; it starts at ten and counts backwards.

     Another great Halloween book is Sheep Trick or Treat by Nancy Shaw.  My story time kids love all of the Sheep books by Nancy Shaw, so I knew this one would win them over as well.  I love the creativity of the sheep and even ask the kids what costumes they would create if they could.  My kids never cease to amaze me with their over-the-top answers!

     Halloween this year seemed to be really successful.  The kids especially liked the end surprise, a GOODY BAG for everyone!  With the 2-6 year olds, I usually give the typical Halloween fare: candy, bubbles, rings, stickers, etc.  But for some reason, I am always stumped on what to give babies. I thought I might put out a few suggestions for those of you who are just as clueless as I am .  This year, my babies got a wiffle ball, a sticker, a Dum-Dum sucker, a board book, and a sippy cup.  Now I know the Dum-Dum may not be appropriate for every child, but as long as you forewarn the parents of what is in the bag, then I feel it’s ok to throw it in.

     That seems to be all for this extra SPOOKTACULAR installment.  Although I love my special Story Time, getting back into the normal swing of things is nice too!  Please come back next week as we continue on our letter-a-week journey with the letter Ii.