This theme for storytime was definitely more tough since there aren't a lot of good Day of the Dead stories in English, but between inter-library loaning and using bilingual books we made this theme work. This subject is perfect for our Spanish storytimes, but a bit challenging for our English ones since we wanted to emphasize the culture of the celebration and not the religious aspect of it. Granted, we took upon the challenge and succeeded.
I ended up turning this storytime into a Day of the Dead/Dia de los Muertos/skeleton theme. Without most of the skeleton stories, the books to choose from would have been slim and I was trying to vary this as much as I could from the previous Halloween storytime.
To explain Day of the Dead, we read The Day of the Dead by Bob Barner. I went straight into my next story since I felt that book was more of an introduction. Bonaparte Falls Apart by Margery Cuyler was a cute story, but perhaps a little too long for my group. I quickly did a movement activity with a "Dem Bones" song and read Skeleton Hiccups by the same author and Skelly & Femur by Jimmy Pickering.
The kids absolutely loved the Skeleton Hiccups book because of all the hiccuping and liked the illustrations of Femur in Pickering's book.
For another activity mixed in, I handed out different skeleton bones and had each of the kids bring their bone up and putting it in the "magic" envelope. Once all the bones were in, we shouted "abracadabra" and the skeleton's bones were magically put together. The kids thought this was fun and they liked saying the magic word.
As a craft, we made sugar skulls out of card stock, heart stickers (upside down for their noses), and crayons and markers. They really enjoyed the craft and had a good time making it their own.
Other books:
Halloween Hustle by Charlotte Gunnufson
Day of the Dead by Amanda Doering
Disney's Coco: Miguel's Music
It's Skeleton Time! by Ana Galan
Clatter Bash! A Day of the Dead Celebration by Richard Keep
For this week's storytime, we celebrated Halloween early with a Halloween storytime. This is always a hit with any group and we always keep it friendly, fun, and not scary but more spooky-cute!
We ended up reading four books that were mostly short, counted Five Friendly Ghosts on the flannel board, and shared the story about The Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything using the flannel board. We also sang "If You're Happy and You Know It."
Out of the four books, the first book was the longest but the most well-received. Skeleton Meets the Mummy by Steve Metzger kept the group engaged. Goose's Spooky Surprise by Laura Wall was a nice addition to our Halloween theme and we followed that with Boo! Haiku by Deanna Caswell and Plumply, Dumply Pumpkin. Caswell's book is much like a guessing game that the kids loved and Plumply, Dumply Pumpkin is one I always end up reading for the holiday.
For our craft, we used white paint to paint our hands and press it onto to our paper and then glue q-tips to it to make it look like a skeleton hand. We have been using paint a little more than usual in storytime, but the kids have really enjoyed it.
Happy Halloween!
Other Books and Ideas:
Skeleton Meets the Mummy by Steve Metzger
Boo, Bunny! by Kathryn O. Galbraith
Plumply, Dumply Pumpkin by Mary Serfozo
I Like Pumpkins by Jerry Smath
Ollie's Halloween by Olivier Dunrea
Goose's Spooky Surprise by Laura Wall
Boo! Haiku by Deanna Caswell and Bob Shea
Monster Needs a Costume by Paul Czajak
One of the best drop-in craft programs is centered around Halloween. There are so many good crafts to choose from, whether it be making ghosts, witches, Frankensteins, or jack-o-lanterns.
For this year's Drop-In and Get Crafty: Halloween, we made an assortment of masks. Everyone could choose from making a cat, pumpkin, Frankenstein, or Day of the Dead mask.
The masks were made using card stock and Popsicle sticks. I opted out of using elastic bands because I was trying to keep my cost low for a program that tends to have a larger turnout. We had a numerous amount of sticks so it was perfect. I used a hole puncher to make the eye cut-outs.
Markers, colored pencils, and of course crayons were put out to decorate masks. I also put out some sequins they could glue on to their masks.
I liked this craft idea because it gave attendees options to choose their mask and how to decorate it. I also needed a relatively easy prep craft and this was perfect. The craft also fits all ages because younger kids can decorate their masks simple and older kids can add as much detail as they want. I also liked how this craft can be their costume for Trick-or-Treating if they wanted it to be.
I had a great turn-out for this program and it was nice to see families crafting together.
Happy Halloween!
This week's Halloween storytime was our last storytime for early fall. We'll get a two-week break and then get back to sharing stories.
The weather was kind of gloomy, perfect for spooky stories, but was bad for my turnout. Regardless, our small group had fun celebrating Halloween together.
The positive consequence of having a smaller storytime is less opportunities for distractions from other kids. This group was very attentive and I was able to read four Halloween-themed books.
Monster Needs a Costume by Paul Czajak tackles a problem most children have with Halloween...what costume to choose. Monster can't decide if he should be a ballerina or a ninja or a...you get the picture. What a silly story paired with complimenting illustrations. What does Monster end up being for Halloween?
For a break-up activity, I used the "Cat of Many Colors" flannel story. This is a story about a white cat who wants to be a black cat for Halloween. He eats and drinks certain colored food and juice to turn into different colors and ends up eating some Halloween licorice candy to turn black. This is a Halloween story that allows the group to learn their colors.
Our next book read was Just Say Boo! by Susan Hood. This is a must for a Halloween storytime because every single group enjoys saying "Boo!" throughout the story.
After our second story, I used the flannel board to tell a story about a woman who was very brave. "The Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Everything" hears different pieces of clothing while walking through the woods. She's not afraid because these pieces of clothing end up making a friendly scarecrow. The group helped me put up the scarecrow's pieces and guessed what he was at the end of the story.
Peep and Egg: I'm Not Trick-or-Treating by Laura Gehl tells the story of Egg being afraid to trick-or-treat because of all the scary costumes. Surprisingly, my group didn't seem to enjoy this story as much as I would have thought but were more into seeing the green monster's face form in Go Away Big Green Monster! by Ed Emberley.
We usually don't use paint in storytime and reserve those crafts for other programs, but it was a nice treat for those who attended to do our painted Halloween craft. We put ghost and pumpkin die-cuts and construction paper out for the group to trace with their fingers (or cotton balls) to make designs when they pulled each die-cut off their paper.
Happy Halloween! Boo!
