I love having Halloween parties at the library, it is so much fun to see the children dressed up. Children have an air of excitement around them during Halloween, there is nothing better than bringing that into the library!
I am working at a new library and they have never had a Halloween party before, it was a great chance to turn it into whatever my little heart desired but I also had no clue what kind of turnout we would receive. Well, I must say the program was a roaring success. We had over 65 people in the Children’s Department and I was told by numerous staff members that they have never seen so many people in the Children’s Department before (YAY!).
Here’s what we did:
Mix & Match Monster Flannel Board
There are a lot of parents with young children in our town and I wanted to make sure they had something Halloween related to play with. The Monster flannel board was a huge success, we actually left it out for the rest of the month for children to play with. There aren’t too many infant related toys in our Children’s Department (something I’m working on) and this is a great fun alternative.
Scavenger Hunt & Obstacle Course
We get a lot of after school children and we wanted to make sure they had something fun to do (besides their normal routine of playing on the computer). This was my colleagues idea, she created an obstacle course throughout the nonfiction section. The kids were supposed to go through and collect bats from each category of the Dewey Decimal System but what actually happened is the children went crazy collecting as many bats as they could in the fastest time possible. Needless to say, they LOOOVED it!
Masking Tape Mummy
For a craft we had the children create a simple, yet fun, masking tape mummy. All they had to do was trace the outline of the mummy, place tape over it, cut it out and add googly eyes.
Decorate a Goodie Bag & Coloring Pages
We weren’t sure if every child would bring a trick or treat bag with them so we gave them the opportunity to decorate a bag. We put out brown paper bags, stickers, crayons and other goodies that could be stuck to the bag. We wanted to make sure that every child could trick or treat with us!
Story & Song
An hour in we settled down to read a story. I read “Room on the Broom” by Julia Donaldson, I had a wide range of ages and was afraid I wouldn’t keep their attention but as always this book proved to be storytime magic and kept the youngest and oldest entertained.
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After the book we sang “If You’re a Monster and You Know It”
If you’re a monster and you know it clap your claws
If you’re a monster and you know it clap your claws
If you’re a monster and you know it and you really want to show it
If you’re a monster and you know it clap your claws
(stomp your paws, chomp your teeth, swish your tail, growl out loud)
Parade
And last but not least, the wonderful Halloween Parade! We gave each desk in the library (yes we even went into the adult department) a bucket of candy. We lead the children throughout the library and had them stop at each desk and say “TRICK OR TREAT.” It might sound chaotic but it actually goes pretty smoothly, the hardest part is getting the line to start but once it does you are golden.
I had so many parents and staff come up to me after the program and the week following telling me how amazing the Halloween party was. I would declare this a Children’s Department success!!
Yay minions!
Read with Mich 