I love Halloween! It's always been my favorite holiday, and I love celebrating it with my storytime families. Every year we do a program of "Slightly Spooky Stories / Cuentos algo escalofriantes" with just enough fright for little ones. Here's the presentation of what we will be doing this year.
We will open the program up with On Halloween Night / La noche de Halloween by Judith Zocchi, which provides a nice overview of the holiday. The bilingual edition is good, though unfortunately the rhyme is lost in the Spanish translation. Next it's time to sing! We'll use the tune of "Did You Ever See a Lassie" to sing our Halloween version - ¿Has visto a una calabaza? Mil gracias to my colega Jackie for proofing my translation of this song. Then it's time for my favorite Halloween story, the 2008 Pura Belpré medal winner for illustration and honor recipient for narrative, Los Gatos Black on Halloween by the late Marisa Montes. Introducing this book is a great moment for sharing with parents the power of playing with rhyme and sound in developing phonological awareness. Speaking of the power of rhyme, we'll next move to an English version of "Five Little Pumpkins" shared by a colleague and a Spanish version of "Cinco calabazas" from Jorge Anaya's Cha, Cha, Cha CD. Monsters come out to play next as we share Go Away Big Green Monster / Fuera de aquí, horrible monstruo verde and a bilingual version of "If You're a Monster and You Know It / Si eres un monstruo y lo sabes." We'll end the storytime with another Halloween classic - The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything / La viejecita que no le tenía miedo a nada by Linda Williams. I love to make the telling of this tale more interactive by using flannel pieces and musical instruments. I give all of the kids an instrument to play to make the sounds of the different clothes: a drum for the zapatos, maracas for the pantalones, bells for the camisa, rhythm sticks for the guantes, and egg shakers for the sombrero - and of course, we are all our own instruments for the "Boo, Buu, Boo" of the cabeza!
What a great week for programs - we have another celebration next week for Día de los Muertos! How are you celebrating either or both of these beautiful holidays with your families or communities?
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