Reading + Holidays:
Ghost Stories
Today's Snack:
Make Mashed Potato Ghosts! First, take waxed paper and cut out a ghost shape to
use as a template. Put the template on a serving dish or cookie sheet. Now use
a rubber spatula to mold and shape hot mashed potatoes into a ghost shape.
You'll need about one cup of mashed potatoes per ghost. You can use tiny slices
and bits of olives to make the eyes and mouth. Make sure NOT to eat the waxed
paper!
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Supplies:
Library books or purchased books
from a bookstore
Holidays are a great springboard for reading fun, whether
in the classroom, the after-school setting, or at home.
Halloween - the only holiday during the year that's
totally for children - has inspired a host of children's books with
not-too-scary stories and fun costumes, pumpkins and other Halloween symbols.
Make it a family tradition to buy a new Halloween book
ever year, and maybe one for every child in the family. They are fun to haul
out on Oct. 1 each year, and re-read.
You
can also consider buying gently-used books on an online bookstore or at garage
sales to give out as Halloween treats - a great alternative to candy.
Bookstores
always have an array of wonderful new books to choose from, too. You can make
it a fun shopping trip and help your child learn how to choose a book that can
be read over and over again.
Here are some ideas to get you started. These are mostly
for ages 4-8:
Kindle downloads are inexpensive, and here's a set of
short stories available from www.amazon.com
that would be fun to read to kids with the lights turned down low:
14 Heart-Pounding
Tales for Halloween, by eBook-Ventures
The Night Before
Halloween, Natasha Wing
The Berenstain Bears Trick
or Treat,
Stan and Jan Berenstain
Sam's First Halloween, Mary Labatt and Marisol
Sarrazin
Halloween Hide and Seek (Kids Play), DK Publishing
In the Haunted House, Eve Bunting and Susan
Meddaugh
One Terrible Halloween (Sam - Dog Detective),
Mary Labatt
The Halloween Kid, Rhode Montijo
Too Many Pumpkins, Linda White
Seen on Halloween (Wacky Flaps), Pat Binder
Room on the Broom, Julia Donaldson and Axel
Scheffler
Franklin's Halloween, Paulette Bourgeois and
Brenda Clark
Arthur's Halloween Costume, Lillian Hoban
Corduroy's Best Halloween
Ever! Don
Freeman and Lisa McCure
