Storytelling5-12 Yrs
Spooky Tales
Target age group: 5-12 years (Storytime best held in the early evening as a special event)
Recommended books:
- Room on the broom / Julia Donaldson
- A dark, dark tale / Ruth Brown
- The teeny tiny woman / Barbara Seuling
- A strange visitor: an old story retold by Mary O’Toole (using relevant pieces to build the skeleton)
Welcome Spooky poem:
- "Halloween Party" By Joanne David
Finger rhyme:
Five little bats hanging upside down. The first little one didn't make a sound. The second one said, "I'll fly far tonight." The third one said, "I don't like sunlight." The fourth one said, "I want to eat some bugs." The fifth one said, "Let me give you a hug." Five little bats hanging upside down. Shhh! It's daytime, don't make a sound!
Songs:
- The Thirteen Days of Halloween by Carol Greene (to the tune of 12 days of Christmas)
Use storyboards (13) with appropriate pictures – coloured clipart mounted onto red or black cardboard. Could even change “Halloween” to “Spooky Tales”.
On the twelfth day of Halloween my good friend gave to me Twelve cauldrons bubbling Eleven bats a-swooping Ten goblins gobbling Nine wizards whizzing Eight brooms a-flying Seven spiders creeping Six owls’ a-screeching Five cooked worms Four giggling ghosts Three fat toads Two hissing cats And a vulture in a dead tree. Last verse: On the thirteenth day of Halloween my good friend gave to me - NOTHING!!! So I turned him into a toad.
- If You're A Ghost and You Know It (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 ghost and you know it, Just Say BOO
- If you're a ghost and you know it and you really want to show it...
- If you're a ghost and you know it just say BOO
- ...If you're a black cat and you know it, Just say Meow
- ...If you're a skeleton and you know it, wiggle your bones (shake your body)
- ...If you love Halloween and you know it, do all three (all 3 actions in order of appearance)
Activities/Craft:
- Pass the parcel- better known as “Pass the bat and Pass the rat” – it is done really fast until all the children have ended up with the parcel and are out of the circle. Pass bat and rat at the same time in opposite directions.
- Graveyard Grab – tell the children you’ve been to a graveyard and collected some body parts. Have all the parts in a big black cauldron (or similar), stored in bags or bowls that you cannot see in. Examples of body parts: dry pasta for bones, slimy spaghetti for hair, tomato sauce for blood, cooked porridge for guts, pickled onions for eyes (pickled onions are great because they’re slippery and smelly and the children usually cannot guess what they are), dried apricots for ears. Told either in a circle and pass the bits around or choose some children to come up and feel. The trick is not to let them see what they’re touching. They all know it is not real but still love the gruesome aspects.
- Trick or Treat (Library staff are scattered around the library. The children follow storyteller around the library together chanting Trick or Treat Rhyme and approach the library staff – the library staff hand a token treat to the children) "Trick or treat, smelly feet, Give us something nice to eat! If you don’t we don’t care, We can see your underwear!"
Activity:
- Time Warp – have all the library staff and children and parents/caregivers doing the Time Warp.
Craft:
- Plastic Bag Ghosts
Materials needed: 2 Plastic Grocery Bags, Permanent Marker, Needle and Thread (or string to tie around neck of ghost), Scissors
Instructions:
- Cut the handles off of one plastic grocery bag. Save them! If the bag has any store markings on the front, cut off the front of the bag.
- Roll the second grocery bag and the piece you cut from the front of the first grocery bag (if applicable), into a ball. Place this into the centre of the 1st grocery bag and bring the edges together to form the ghost's head.
- Use one of the bag handles you cut off and wrap it around the head and tie into a knot. Fluff out the ends of the handle to look like arms.
- Use the magic marker to make eyes and mouth.
- With threaded needle, insert needle through the head (into both bags so thread won't pull out) to form a string to hang your ghost. Alternatively, tie string around the neck of ghost to hang.
- Make several to hang around the house or on the trees outside as yard decorations!
(Dapto District Library, Wollongong City Council)
Spooky Storytime
Target age group 4 – 12 (Number of Children - 30)
Opening Rhyme:
Let’s be spooky. Let’s have fun! We’ll scare ourselves before we’re done (make scared face) With ghosts and goblins – winds that howl (make the sound of the wind, oooo) Things that fly and things that prowl (put arms out to fly) We’ll talk about such creepy stuff Until we both get scared enough (make scared face) To hear things we cannot see (put hands by ears then cover eye) And see things that just cannot be. Let’s be spooky – you and me. (point to kids and then self)
Recommended books, read:
- A Dark, Dark Tale – Ruth Brown
- Where’s my Mummy? – Carolyn Crimi
- Baby Pie – Tom MacRae, Nick Ward
Games:
- The Mummy Wrapping Game to the tune of Monster Mash & the Adams Family - Child 1 wraps child 2 with toilet paper – first one to finish wins a prize 10 mummies up the front. 10 teams of 3.
- The spooky guessing game using a box covered with black material – cut a hole in the front and children insert their hands to feel the contents.
* Eyeballs – pickled onions * Brains – red jelly * Maggots – cold cooked spaghetti * Rat * Bat * Rubber glove filled with water & frozen.
- Pumpkin Bowling with 10 pins and 3 small pumpkins – 3 teams of 10. (The children loved this and the shape of the pumpkins made bowling very unpredictable)
Craft: Spider craft – egg cartons painted black, black pipe cleaners for legs and googly eyes.
(Thirroul District Community Centre & Library, Wollongong City Council)
Fright Night (for an early evening storytime), or Heebie jeebies!
Target age: 4-8 years
Books:
- Big scary monster (by Thomas Docherty)
- Mommy? (with art by Maurice Sendak, scenario by Arthur Yorinks, and paper engineering by Matthew Reinhart)
- Hist! (by C.J. Dennis, illustrated by P.J. Gouldthorpe)
Finger rhymes:
- Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate;
The first one said, 'Oh my it's getting late.' The second one said, 'There are witches in the air.' The third one said, 'But I don't care.' The fourth one said: 'I'm ready for some fun!' The fifth one said, 'Let's run and run and run.' 'Wooooooo' went the wind, And out went the lights. And the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight. (The above rhyme may be done as a felt board story, or using little plastic/model pumpkins. Turn the lights down before commencing, and perhaps light a candle while introducing the rhyme - then blow it out on the penultimate line of the rhyme.)
Song:
- Monster mash by Bobby 'Boris' Picket and the Crypt-Kickers (You might like to devise a simple dance for the kids to do to the chorus of this song eg 3 steps to the right, then kick 3 steps to the left, then kick, jump to the right, jump to the left, turn round on the spot in a circle - screams are optional! In demonstrating this dance for the kids, I don't think I could resist dimming the lights and holding a lit torch under my chin, for full horror movie impact!)
Crafts:
- Paper bag ghost - You'll need: white paper bags/white cardboard for arms/black paper eyes and mouth/glue/sticky tape/newspaper/white string or wool. Instructions: glue black paper eyes and mouth onto the paper bag, fill the paper bag with bits of screwed up newspaper, so it's full, then sticky tape down the end of the bag, attach an arm on either side of the ghost with glue or sticky tape, stick string or wool to the top of the bag to hang 'the ghost'
- I am a zombie! (or vampire etc) - Have each child lie down on a big piece of butcher's paper, and trace around their body outline with a pen. The child can then paint their image, filling in the outline with a good ghoulish colour eg green, purple, and then paint on a face with fangs, Frankenstein scars etc. If you like, you can provide extras for decoration eg green glitter, skeleton stickers etc
(Unanderra Library, Wollongong City Council)
Bedtime Storytime
Target age: Families (parents with children up to the age of approximately 10 years)
Aim: To use stories and rhymes that are engaging for all ages, but not too scary for the younger participants.
Recommended books:
- Meg up the Creek by Helen Nicoll
- Bats at the library by Brian Lies Easy/Lies
- Read ‘A Good Tip for Ghosts’ (with some of the lights out!) from ‘Uncanny’ by Paul Jennings.
Craft:
- Vampire bat doorknob hanger
Props:
- Witches hats, witch puppet, bat puppet, cat puppet, torch
Songs:
Three Little Witches (to the tune of Three little Indians’) One little, two little, Three little witches Flying over haystacks, Soaring over ditches. One little, two little, Three little witches -- Happy Storytime! One little, two little, Three little witches Flew o'er the fence and Tore their britches, Sewed them up with Sixty stitches -- Happy Storytime! If You’re a Ghost and you Know It (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 ghost and you know it, just say BOO If you’re a ghost and you know it and you really want to show it… If you’re a ghost and you know it, just say BOO If you’re a black cat and you know it, just say Meow If you’re a skeleton and you know it wiggle your bones
(Karen Bruce, Singleton Library)