Rainy day recess spiders, magic bookmarks and more Halloween happenings

How cool are these pipe cleaner and pony bead spiders that some of our in-person students made during recess yesterday?

This was actually the second time this month that we had a spider-making craft option in the media center during a rainy day recess, after their popularity the first time we did it. Since our county introduced (limited) in-person learning, one of my duties has been helping supervise recess for grades 1-5, and when our principal suggested bringing some of those students into the media center as an alternative to the gym on rainy days, I realized what a great opportunity that posed for getting in some craft or other "maker space" time.

The idea for the spiders came from a book my daughter and I had out from our local public library -- Handmade Halloween Crafts by Ruth Owen -- which is one of the best holiday craft books I have seen. I am definitely putting this series, Handmade Holiday Crafts, on our to-consider-buying list for the Greenbrier Media Center.

My other great Halloween find at our local library was Drew's Famous Kids Bestest Halloween Music, which has all the best classics (Monster Mash, Purple People Eater, etc.) as well as some great, short, kid-friendly spooky stories. Our favorite was "The Ghost With One Black Eye," told with perfect dramatic pauses and repetition that makes it impossible not to repeat the refrain along with the narrator. I brought it in to play during the spider craft but unfortunately wasn't able to get it to play on my laptop. Maybe next year!

The spiders worked well for a socially-distanced craft because I was able to give the students a baggie with the supplies -- beads, pipe cleaners, a pre-cut card stock body, eyes, glue dots, a felt wristband strip and velcro dots -- for them to use without having to share supplies like scissors or glue.

They were pretty simple and most students were able to complete the spider legs during our 25 minute window. The book called for using a glue gun and, though we tried with glue dots, I did find that the glue gun was essential, so I had the students leave their spiders for me to do the final gluing steps (putting the body on the legs and gluing the spider to the wristband) and return to them the following day.

If you haven't guessed, Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays because of the creativity involved. When the PTA suggested giving out treats at our curbside pickup in lieu of their usual Trunk or Treat event, I wanted to think of something fun and book-related to give out with students' library books. I decided to dress up as "The Book Witch" (enter knit witch hat and comfy orange shawl) and give out magic bookmarks that start out black, but reveal rainbow colors when scratched with a stylus. It was pouring rain so I ended up just putting them in with students’ library books, but they seemed to be a hit! I let some of the in-person students get started on their designs during a read-aloud and was amazed at what some of them created. I wish I had taken pictures, but instead, here is my 3-year-old daughter's test design:

I'm not sure whether our students will get to go trick or treating this year, but I hope activities like these were able to give them at least a little bit of the usual Halloweeny fun.

Now on to Thanksgiving!