Halloween Storytime

To gear up for Halloween, I decided to do a storytime all about this holiday. The week prior I asked all of the kids to wear their costumes to storytime, and many did so with excitement. I brought along a costume of my own to share - my Little Red Riding Hood cape. We talked about how much fun it was to dress up before moving on to some "scary" stories.

Spooky Hour by Tony Mitton
This backwards counting book introduces a lot of scary or spooky creatures, but the bright, bubbly illustrations and whimsical rhymes keep the tone light.

Moonlight the Halloween Cat by Cynthia Rylant
This is a quiet story. Only a sentence or two on each two-page spread, but the pictures work well to set the mood. The Halloween references in this book are a tad subtle, but it was nice to break up my storytime with something not so incredibly saturated with the holiday.

Big Pumpkin by Erica Silverman
My favorite Halloween story ever! This story lends itself really well to dramatizing to make it exciting for the kids. Just find a large pumpkin, tape the vine to the wall, and play the part of the witch while the kids take on the other roles.

We did a number of other activities, including a flannelboard story about Five Little Pumpkins and a draw-and-tell story about a witch and her cat. We also sang a song about Halloween creatures to the tune of "If You're Happy and You Know It."

If you're a ghost and you know it just say "boo!"
If you're a vampire and you know it show your fangs...
If you're a bat and you know it flap your wings....
If you're a werewolf and you know it give a howl....
If you're a skeleton and you know it shake your bones....

At the end, I also gave out a few treats. AAA had given the library a bunch of glow-in-the-dark Halloween bags perfect for trick-or-treating along with bookmarks outlining Halloween safety. The kiddos also received mellocream pumpkins as a fun candy treat