Halloween+Books,+Oct.+24th,+WFMJ

Haunting Favorites for Halloween 1. For the little ones: FIVE LITTLE PUMPKINS - you can find several versions of this snappy tune that is a recommended read for emergent readers…it’s a text that can have hand motions, which allows the emergent reader become animated while reading sight words such as the ordinal numbers 1-5 and rhyming words gate, late, air, care, run, fun, light, and sight. 2. There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat! By Lucille Colandro. A great take-off from the old lady who swallowed a fly. You can find a similar picture book for just about every holiday. She’ll be swallowing a bell for Christmas. The story is repetitive and predictable, which is important for emergent readers. 3. Goodnight Goon by Michael Rex - a parody of a classic, Goodnight Moon. How will a little werewolf get to sleep when a goon comes in and trashes everything in sight? This story will be featured at a Halloween Storytime at Barnes & Noble on October 29th at 11:00 am. 4. Trick or Treat, Marley! By John Grogan. Marley’s family is having a Halloween Party and Marley wants to help with the preps. As usual, Marley gets into everything - pumpkins, streamers, and candy…but you can’t help but love this dog. 5. The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin by Joe Troiano. Everyone in the pumpkin patch teased Spookley for being an odd shape, until one day he proved that being different can save the day! 6. Hank Zipzer’s MY DOG’S A SCARDEY-CAT, a Halloween Tail - The New York times best-selling series. Hank has a great idea for a costume - he wants to dress up as a table in an Italian restaurant. Breadsticks in one hand and garlic-scented olive oil in the other and wearing a red and white checkered table cloth. Hank thinks it’s brilliant…his friends, not so much. 7. BOO … and I mean it! Junie B., First Grader by Barbara Park. Junie B. is scared of everything that comes with Halloween…witches, pumpkins etc. So, she doesn’t want to go Trick or Treating, until with the help of a friend, she makes a costume to scare even the scariest of competition. 8. A Good Night for Ghosts by Mary Pope Osborne - Jack and Annie go to New Orleans to inspire a Young Louis Armstrong to bring jazz to the world. While they are there, they find New Orleans to be HAUNTED. It will take a host of ghosts and a daring plan to make their plan for Louis Armstrong a success. 9. Mad Libs - UNDEAD MAD LIBS - A super silly way to fill in the __! Concept created by Roger Price and Leonard Stern.__ __10. Ghost Hauntings by Don Roff - it’s in picture book style, but really for older children, even adults. I learned about many haunted places that I didn’t know were haunted, including The White House. Several presidents, their families and guests have seen the ghost of Abe Lincoln walking the halls of the second floor with his hands clasped behind his back…Hillary Clinton was one of the last to see this ghost.__

__A Fun Activity to do with the family or kids at a Halloween Party.__ __Have kids complete this thought:__ __One, pitch, black, very dark night,__ __Right after Mom turned off the light,__ __I looked out my window, only to see…__ ___ (think of a fantasy creature to fill in this blank. For example, a pink elephant) Up in my tree. But that pink elephant didn’t frighten me. Continue making up silly fantasy creatures. Talk about how fantasy is unbelievable. Then, act it out too. Use hand motions to turn off the light etc. Then take it to a new level: Take a dish of floor, place the palm of your hand in the dish, then put your hand onto your face…it should make a ghostly face. Then when you get to “I looked out my window, only to see…”, put a flashlight under your chin and state “Todd up in my tree.” The kids love taking turns being the ghost. It’s through this story, that is repeated over and over, that young children learn sight words such as “one, black, night, right, light, look, out, see”.

A Cool Centerpiece: 1. place a few logs on your table. 2. wrap them with battery operated white lights. 3. stick red, orange and yellow tissue paper throughout the logs to make it look like flames for a fire.

Turn the lights off in the room and tell ghost stories around an "indoor" campfire.