Halloween is almost upon us, and although this year’s celebration may look very different, the holiday can still give you and your child many reasons to smile!
Be sure to stop by the Library to pick up a Grab & Go Craft Kit! This month’s craft is a woven pumpkin mat. For young children, activities like weaving strengthen the muscles that will eventually hold a pen or pencil to write and is considered a pre-writing activity. Mathematical concepts are also part of the craft! The over/under pattern of the strips and the repetition of the weaving pattern (all the odd strips follow the same pattern; the even strips follow an alternate pattern) support math knowledge.
Kits are available Monday, October 12 through Sunday, October 18, while supplies last,
- on our crafts clothesline (weather permitting) from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. AND
- during browsing hours at the Youth Services Desk.
Watch the accompanying storytime, as well as instructions for the craft here:
At the Deerfield Public Library, our Halloween picture book collection is full of great reads. Many more titles are instantly available on Hoopla. We’ve got nonfiction titles about pumpkins, Halloween, and candy to round out your reading selection. Don’t forget our not-so-scary movies to show on Halloween night! Whether a DVD, Blu-Ray, or streaming video, be sure to check out the movies on our At-Home Halloween flyer.
To celebrate the holiday without trick-or-treating your neighborhood, you can have fun with these alternate approaches.
- Have your child trick or treat every interior door in your house. One of our daughters would get tired of walking around the neighborhood pretty quickly, so this approach may yield more candy for you, er, I mean, your child!
- Have your child ring YOUR doorbell, get a piece of candy, walk through your house, go out a back or side door, return to the front, and start the process all over again! This will not only provide lots of treats but will help to tire them out….right before they eat a lot of candy!
- Plan a candy scavenger hunt. Give your child the first clue and have them decipher the location of the next. The final clue should bring them to a stash of Halloween treats!
- Plan a candy hunt. Hide candy all over the house (be sure to count how many pieces you’ve hidden). Set the timer and give them 5 minutes to find all they can!
- Once your child has all the candy they desire, don’t forget to have more math fun by sorting the candy using various attributes: chocolate/non-chocolate, size, color, favorites/less-favored, etc.
Whatever your Halloween looks like this year, we hope you have a safe and fun celebration together with your family!
