In the spirit of spooky good fun, we thought we’d dedicate this week’s blog to Halloween. Some of our favorite pumpkin and Halloween-themed children’s books are listed below. We also asked our friends on Twitter and Facebook to provide some of their favorite activities. Enjoy!
Halloween Books
Boo! Made You Jump! (Charlie and Lola) by Lauren Child (Grosset and Dunlap, 2007)
It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown by Charles M. Schulz (Running Press Kids, 2008)
Inside a House That Is Haunted by Alyssa Satin Capucilli, illustrated by Tedd Arnold (Scholastic, 1998)
The Littlest Pumpkin by R. A. Sherman, illustrated by Betina Ogden (Scholastic, Inc. 2001)
Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005)
Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Axel Scheffler (Dial Books, 2001)
Five Little Pumpkins Rhyme & Activity (from Pierce County Library)
Rhyme
Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate.
The first one said, “Oh my, it’s getting late!”
The second one said, “There’s a chill in the air.”
The third one said, “But we don’t care.”
The fourth one said, “Let’s run and run and run!”
The fifth one said, “ I’m ready for some fun.” Then, whooooo went the wind
And OUT went the lights
And five little pumpkins rolled out of sight…
Activity
Bring in 5 real mini pumpkins. Have your kids act out the rhyme (rolling the pumpkins, shivering, running (where appropriate) and turning out the lights.
Eerie Eco Bats (from Discount School Supply)
What You Need: Clean, empty cardboard egg cartons
Paint cups with washable tempera paint in various colors
Paintbrushes, scissors, wiggly eyes, glitter, construction paper, scissors and glue.
What You Do:
1. Cut out small sections of the egg cartons for the children to use; they can be in sets of 3 cups or 5 cups, depending on how large the final bats will be. Finally, pre-cut pieces of yarn or string for hanging.
2. Demonstrate how to cut the outside cups with a zigzag pattern to look like bat wings, making sure not to cut the cup in the center (which will become the face/body).
3. Have children paint their egg carton bats. Encourage them to be creative with the colors and to design their bats any way they like.
4. Once the bats are dry have the children decorate with the collage materials provided. Children can cut vampire “teeth” using construction paper to glue to their bats’ faces.
5. Show children how to gently poke a hole in the top of their bats’ body and thread one of the pre-cut pieces of yarn through for hanging.
Have a great idea you’d like to share? Let us know!
