Pumpkins--Flannel board & active participation

 I found the rhyme "Once I Had a Pumpkin" on the King County Library System website.  You start with a plain pumpkin and the next verse has you add eyes, nose, mouth and teeth.  I'd sing a version of this as I created a jack-o-lantern on my flannel board.  I then put up a number of felt pumpkins and handed out features & let the kids come up and make their own faces.  The features were many fun foam stickers made to decorate pumpkins which I stuck to felt & cut out.  My faces are plain compared to what the kids did but I thought they'd give an idea of a finished face.  My pumpkins were various shades of orange and brown.

I just noticed no noses, but I have some of those that I hand out too, as well as hair, hats & a few other items.  I hope you try this and have as much fun as we have had.

Monster Mania

I love to do monsters in the fall since we don't do a specific Halloween theme.  Last year, I found blank balsa wood masks at one of the fabric stores for $1 each & just had to have them.

 

As you can see, I also had fun coloring them all in.  I used them in a family storytime and had five parents come up to be my monsters and follow as I read the following rhyme:

 

FIVE BIG MONSTERS ON A DARK, DARK NIGHT

 

Five big monsters on a dark, dark night

 

Made a very, very spooky sight.

 

The first one danced on his tippy toes

 

The second one tumbled and bumped his nose.

 

The third one jumped high up in the air.

 

The fourth one walked like a fuzzy, fuzzy bear.

 

The fifth one sang a Monster song.

 

Five big monsters--played the whole night long.

 

 

What was really fun was when some of the parents took their role very seriously--falling down & singing a made up monster song.  The kids enjoyed seeing their adults acting silly and helping out the storyteller.

 

 

I also had some holographic monsters that I found at the dollar store; I just had to trim "Happy Halloween" off the bottom.  These I can use on the flannel board when the masks don't work as well with my group. 

 

 

 

Hallmark put out a picture book with sound effects of "Monster Mash" last year.  I found a CD with the song and put the two together as part of our Monster Mania.

 

The book is out of stock on line at Hallmark, but you might be able to find a copy through another outlet.  (I found a 2nd copy on clearance at Walgreens this fall).  This was fun to use and then at the end, I played it again and encourage them to dance.