How to Create Halloween in Elementary School
4. The Halloween Book
1. Wow! You're so excited by all this! And maybe a little tired! But, hey ... Wait a minute. What's ... What's this? Oh! That thing holding your flashcards seems to have something else inside. What could it be? You open the cover, a little scared by what might be inside. Then take heart as you discover and announce, "Ahhh! The Halloween Book!"
2. Take the students through the pages. Describe "putting on costumes" on the first page, but don't worry about repetition at this point. On the second page, note the parents waving to the kids and elicit, "Happy Halloween!" Then point to each of the children on the page and elicit, "Look, there's a (whatever)."
3. On the next page, after eliciting, "Look! There's a bat!" teach the students, "Look! There's a jack-o'-lantern." Then point out the big ones in the class and elicit the same response.
4. Get the students to make the doorbell noise, have fun with the "creeeeeak!" of the opening door, then teach "Trick-or-treat!" It can be fun to start by looking unsure, then holding out your arms with an imaginary bag of candy and saying a few of the wrong things, like "Candy! Yes!" or "In! In!" or just making garbled, excited noises. Then realize the right thing to do: "Ahh... Trick or treat!" Upon receiving candy, the kids should say, "Thank you!"
5. At the second house, note the presence of the jack-o'-lantern again. Get excited! "Ah! Jack-o'-lantern! Trick or treat ... is okay!" Then cover up the jack-o'-lantern and add, "But ... no jack-o'-lantern ... Trick or treat is not okay." Cover and uncover the jack-o'-lantern a few times, getting alternately excited and disheartened. Finally, proceed to this house as before.
6. Continue through the rest of the book, eliciting more and more as you go along and reinforcing the jack-o'-lantern prerequisite for approaching a house. This is important, as you don't want students going to every room in the school!
7. When you're done, it's time for masks!