Halloween Hootenanny - Participatory Stories & Songs

 

Halloween Hootenanny - Participatory Stories & Songs

Details at: https://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/2013/12/halloween-hootenany-interactive-program.html

Perth Amboy Free Public Library 10/31/26

Halloween 2022 -- Bedminster Library/Nicole Paolino's class

Song: I am the Great Pumpkin (lyrics and many other ideas at: https://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/2013/12/halloween-hootenany-interactive-program.html)

Participatory Storytelling/Props: Big Pumpkin – from the book by Erica Silverman -- In this variant on the folktale, “The Great Big Enormous Turnip,” the witch, ghost, skeleton, and vampire are unable to pull up the pumpkin until a tiny bat ignores their derisive laughter and suggests they all work together.  I sing/chant this to a tune from an old Scholastic recording – feel free to contact me if you want to learn the tune.

Finger Puppets:  Five Little Pumpkins Sitting on a Gate

Storytelling (props for children to use - shoes, pants, shirt, hat, gloves, pumpkin head, scarecrow): The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams

Action Song; Scarecrow, Scarecrow Turn Around

Storytelling (puppets or hanging signs): One Dark Night by Edna Mitchell Preston

Action Song: Two Little Ghosts

Participatory Pop-Up Book: In a Dark Dark Wood by David A. Carter

Song: How to Make a Ghost Tune: “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”

Song/Movement: Hookey Spooky (Tune: Hokey Pokey”)

Song/Flannel: Old McDonald had a Haunted House

Action Song: The Witch on Halloween

Close with "Sing" 

skipped: 

Shakey Eggs to “Dem Bones” (track #16 on Spooky Favorites) & Monster Mash (recording unavailable)

 *****

Nicole Paolino's class (Pumpkins/Halloween) (virtual special needs):

Book (K-2): Bear’s Bargain – Frank Asch (also published as Moonbear’s Bargain)  (“have you ever wished you were big, or could fly?”..we tried flying with bear in the book -- clever problem solving).

Song: I am the Great Pumpkin (lyrics and many other ideas at: https://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/2013/12/halloween-hootenany-interactive-program.html)

Participatory Storytelling (Puppets/Props): Big Pumpkin

Participatory Storytelling/Props: Big Pumpkin – from the book by Erica Silverman -- In this variant on the folktale, “The Great Big Enormous Turnip,” the witch, ghost, skeleton, and vampire are unable to pull up the pumpkin until a tiny bat ignores their derisive laughter and suggests they all work together.  I sing/chant this to a tune from an old Scholastic recording – feel free to contact me if you want to learn the tune.

Finger Puppets:  Five Little Pumpkins Sitting on a Gate

Book: Pumpkins: A Story for a Field by Mary Lyn Ray – A splendid modern environmental myth in which a man, saddened by the thought that the field across from his house is about to be sold, sells everything he has, buys seeds, grows pumpkins, and then sends them all around the world (by planes, trucks, ships, and even flying carpets) to get enough money to buy the field and save it.  (10.14 – omitted in kindergarten, did action song “Five Little Pumpkins Sitting on a Gate” instead.)

Participatory Pop-Up Book: In a Dark Dark Wood by David A. Carter

Storytelling (props for children to use - shoes, pants, shirt, hat, gloves, pumpkin head, scarecrow): The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams

Song/Movement: Scarecrow, scarecrow, turn around (Scarecrow puppet)

Singable Book: There was an Old Monster by Ed Emberley (prefer If You Are a Monster and You Know It by Rebecca & Ed Emberley) -- great art inspiration idea!

 

Action Song: "Horns, Fangs, Knees and Paws...Eyes and Ears and Tail and Claws" (Head & Shoulders, Knees & Toes variation)

Fold Out Prop: 10 Trick or Treaters (tune: “10 Little Indians”)

Book: Pumpkin Heads – Wendell Minor – clever and unusual ways to carve a pumpkin

More pumpkin ideas:https://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/search/label/Pumpkins
More monster ideas: https://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/search/label/Monsters

School Age Storytime : Pumpkins

A K-4 storytime combining the joy of storytelling, an environmental fable, some truly enGROSSing science, and a great ghost story or tale of creative problem-solving 
(order of books varied in some groups)

Participatory Storytelling/Props: Big Pumpkin – from the book by Erica Silverman -- In this variant on the folktale, “The Great Big Enormous Turnip,” the witch, ghost, skeleton, and vampire are unable to pull up the pumpkin until a tiny bat ignores their derisive laughter and suggests they all work together.  I sing/chant this to a tune from an old Scholastic recording – feel free to contact me if you want to learn the tune.

Book: Pumpkins: A Story for a Field – Mary Lyn Ray (Modern environmental fable/fairytale about a man who saves a field from development by growing pumpkins and sending them around the world.) (omitted for Kindergarten)

Non-Fiction Book: Rotten Pumpkin: A Rotten Tale in 15 Voices* – 577.16 SCHWARTZ – “UnCommon Core” at its best!  -- Told in the first person by the pumpkin, mouse, squirrel, slug, fly, black rot, bread mold, sow bug, Penicillium, earthworm, yeast cell, slime mold, soil, and seed, this is science “on the hoof.”  Wonderful writing & delightfully yucky photographs complete this unforgettable tour through the life cycle of a pumpkin that kids will find completely enGROSSing!  Booktalked: Living Sunlight by Molly Bang 572.46 BAN (an unforgetable look at photosynthesis and the interconnected web of all life on earth told by the sun.)

Book (K-2): Bear’s Bargain – Frank Asch (also published as Moonbear’s Bargain)  (“have you ever wished you were big, or could fly?”..we tried flying with bear in the book -- clever problem solving). (3rd-4th grade): The Perfect Pumpkin Pie – Denys Cazet (when Old Mr. Wilkerson dies while eating pie, he returns as a  grumpy ghost with a roving eyedetermined to find a perfect pie – have poster for his chant -- could use puppets & ping pong & tennis ball “eye” props.)

Bedm. K-4, 10/2017

STEAM Storytime–Rotten Pumpkin

S.T.E.A.M. Storytime (ages 3-6 & grades K-4) Problem solving, creative dramatics, and the  cycle of life – all celebrated with the orange icon of the fall season! 

Book: Bear’s Bargain – Frank Asch (also published as Moonbear’s Bargain)  (“have you ever wished you were big, or could fly?”..we tried flying with bear in the book -- clever problem solving).

Participatory Storytelling/Props: Big Pumpkin – from the book by Erica Silverman -- In this variant on the folktale, “The Great Big Enormous Turnip,” the witch, ghost, skeleton, and vampire are unable to pull up the pumpkin until a tiny bat ignores their derisive laughter and suggests they all work together.  I sing/chant this to a tune from an old Scholastic recording – feel free to contact me if you want to learn the tune.

Non-Fiction Book: Rotten Pumpkin: A Rotten Tale in 15 Voices* – 577.16 SCHWARTZ – “UnCommon Core” at its best!  -- Told in the first person by the pumpkin, mouse, squirrel, slug, fly, black rot, bread mold, sow bug, Penicillium, earthworm, yeast cell, slime mold, soil, and seed, this is science “on the hoof.”  Wonderful writing & delightfully yucky photographs complete this unforgettable tour through the life cycle of a pumpkin that kids will find completely enGROSSing!

Book: Pumpkin Heads – Wendell Minor – great inspiration for unusual jack-o-lanterns.

Craft: Create either cute or gross pumpkins inspired by the books above.  Materials: orange construction paper, scrap construction paper, goggly eyes, markers, stamp pads & cotton balls (to create simulated “rot”)

Music playing: Andrew Gold’s Halloween Howls

BWL 10.17

Ideas for Halloween engineering projects: http://leftbraincraftbrain.activehosted.com/index.php?action=social&chash=0a09c8844ba8f0936c20bd791130d6b6.195

Maker Monday / STEAM Storytime Surprise: B.Y.O.M. (Build Your Own Monster!) (Ages 4-11)

 

 

Combine eeks and engineering and create your own moving monster! 

 

Display books on monsters as kids arrive.

 

Book: Where the Wild Things Are – Maurice Sendak 

 

Song/Flannel: “It’s Monster Day” (From Linda Arnold's album "Peppermint Wings")

 
Book: Leonardo the Terrible Monster – Mo Willems

 

Singable Book: If you are a Monster and You Know it – Rebecca & Ed Emberley

 

Make 3D Monsters -- 12x18 cardboards, pipe cleaners, scrap construction paper, googly eyes, pom poms, fancy scissors, gluesticks, tape, hole punches, paper fasteners. Older kids were given the challenge to make a monster that could stand up and be stable but also could move.

Halloween music playing throughout program.

 

Finished by having our monsters dance to “Dem Bones.”

 

 

10.2016 afterschool program

More “monster mania” at: http://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/2013/10/preschool-storytime-monsters.html

 

10/17 STEAM Storytime Surprise