Halloween week--scarey!

I can't believe how fast October has flown!

We have been enjoying some of the beauties of fall--like the need for long sleeves and jackets (I just love a crisp, chilly breath of fresh air)!!

Of course October brings our traditional "Halloween" books, movies, baking, and decorating.

We start every school day with Five Little Pumpkins, which we learned from Grandma Moss and just love (we have assigned each person his/her appropriate pumpkin):

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate.

The first one says, "Oh my, it's getting late!" (Mom)

The second one says, "There are witches in the air!" (Gabe)

The third one says, "I don't care." (totally Adam)

The fourth one says, "Let's run, and run, and run!" (yup. Eli)

The fifth one says, "I'm ready for some fun." (Isaac)

Then, "woooooooooo" goes the wind,

And OUT (clap) go the lights!

And the 5 little pumpkins roll out of sight. (rolling hands)

I have been trying to learn one of the Witches' chants from Macbeth, because it is so fun and perfect for Halloween: Round about the cauldron go, in the poisoned entralls throw . . .

I was hoping to encourage my kids to learn Windy Nights, By Robert Louis Stevenson:

Whenever the moon and the stars are set,

Whenever the wind is high,

All night long in the dark and wet,

A man goes riding by.

Late in the night when the fires are out,

Why does he gallop and gallop about?

Whenever the trees are crying aloud,

And ships are tossed at sea,

By on the highway, low and loud,

By at the gallop goes he.

By at the gallop he goes, and then

By he comes back at the gallop again

I would say it in my creepiest voice, hoping to really grab them.

Well, . . .Adam would cover his ears and sing every time I began the poem, because he was sick of it, but . . .he'll love it next year!

One of our favorite books/poems to read at Halloween time is the tale of The Spider and the Fly (a favorite all year, but especially fun at this time of year). There is another really cute book called Here They Come by David Costello. It is one of Gabe's all-time favorites and is just fun!

In early October the boys learned the song, "When Johnny Comes Marching Home". It is a marching song from the civil war (the Northerners sang it). I showed them later how it is the same tune used in "The Ants Go Marching", and we learned that one. Well, since it was coming on Halloween we decided to write our own Halloweeny version--some of the verses are a bit tricky to fit in, but the boys and I had a pretty fun hour putting it together, and Isaac thought we were hysterical. Here are the basic verses:

The Ghosts go haunting 1 by 1,

ooooo, ooooooo (scarey ghost sounds)

The Ghosts go haunting 1 by 1,

ooooo, oooooo

The Ghosts go haunting 1 by 1,

The scariest one says, "This is fun!"

And they all go haunting

down to the town

to scare all the kids!

ooooooooo (longer scarey sound to lead into the next verse)

The ghost go haunting 2 by 2, . . .

The scariest one howls at the moon.

And they all go haunting . . .

ooooooooo

The Ghosts go haunting 3 by 3 . . .

The scariest one looked right at me!

And they all go haunting . . .

oooooooooo

The Ghosts go haunting 4 by 4 . . .

The scariest one hid behind the door.

And they all go haunting . . .

ooooooooo

The Ghosts go haunting 5 by 5 . . .

The scariest one died at 95.

And they all go haunting . . .

oooooooo

The Ghosts go haunting 6 by 6 . . .

The scariest one stopped to eat some chicks.

(Adam's favorite, but you could change it to "throw some sticks")

And they all go haunting. . .

ooooooooo

The Ghosts go haunting 7 by 7 . . .

They've never made it quite to heaven.

And they all go haunting . . .

ooooooooo

The Ghosts go haunting 8 by 8 . . .

The scariest one made an old woman faint.

And they all go haunting . . .

ooooooooo

The Ghosts go haunting 9 by 9 . . .

The scariest one stopped to rattle the pines.

And they all go haunting . . .

ooooooooo

The ghost go haunting 10 by 10 . . .

When the sun comes up they'll be gone again.

And they all go haunting . . .

ooooooooo

Halloween is a chance to laugh at the spooky,

to try something creepy,

(Adam with a shrimp scampi we used in our dinner that night--colored hair and eyes added)

or to feel a nice little chill go up your spine--like when we wonder what really happened to Icabod Crane in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

Always nice to have another reason to celebrate!