Book Review: Spooky Stories Aloud

When my daughter was younger it seems like spooky stories were an all-year thing, with “The Ghost and Jenny Jemima” a regular feature. Whether you’re looking for a readaloud for the classroom or home, Spooky Poems Aloud is a fun one for Halloween season and beyond.

It includes 20 poems written by Joseph Coleho and illustrated by Daniel Gray-Barnett. They include poems of different styles such as limericks, poems with repeating lines, rhyming and non-rhyming. One poem loses a line every stanza, while another repeats an onomatopoeia. There’s also a renga, which is made up of tanka poems (lines of five syllables, then 7, then 5, 7 and 7), a pantoum and a villanelle, both of which have specific rhyme structures and repeating lines.

Many of the poems suggest that kids try writing one similar, such as a limerick, rules for a club for ghoulish creatures (examples in the book are werewolves and vampires), a poem about a scary plant or writing a poem that incorporates different senses.

This would be fun to do in the classroom, reading the poem from the book and having kids write and illustrate their own version, then share and display in the classroom. Or you could make a class poem around one of the prompts, such as asking kids what pranks they would pull if they were a ghost. One poem asks kids to illustrate the witches’ ball described in one poem, and the illustrations throughout are sure to inspire kids to want to draw their own illustrations to their poems.

This book would be a fun addition to the reading center during spooky season and an easy way to add a little poetry unit in October. Or just read it at home — but not too close to bedtime!

About the book: 40 pages, hardcover, 20 poems. Published 2024 by Wide Eyed Editions, suggested retail price $19.99.

Next Plan Idea:

Celebrate Poem in Your Pocket Day

I guess this isn’t exclusively a kid’s craft or learning activity (though cutting and folding are great for developing fine motor skills!) but I think kids would love having some of these printable holiday houses around the house or classroom to play with in the holiday season. Because they’re made of paper, they’re inexpensive to make, and while there is assembly involved the results are well worth the work.

If you have a cutting machine you can use the cut files from Delia Creates to make making your own paper village that much easier. She actually cut out all her buildings in different colors of card stock and used them to decorate a wreath, but you could also put them on the mantle or on a low table for kids to play with. Make a whole small world scene complete with fake snow, little characters and other elements, and kids are sure to start making their own stories to go with the setup.

This set of houses is printed and cut out using a craft knife. It’s meant to be an advent calendar, with each of the buildings numbered and you can stick a treat inside. But you could also just play with the buildings! You can get a free download of four buildings from Little House on the Corner, or head to the post to see where you can buy the whole set.

The Mavelo website isn’t in English, but their printable gingerbread house template is super cute to use as a gift box or to play with. If you need the instructions the website is in Polish but Google Translate seems to do a pretty good job.

Bora Illustrates has an adorable little house to print, cut and assemble featuring a cat, bird and gingerbread person. You could probably print it in black and white and have your kiddo color it, too.

Next Plan Idea:

Have you read?

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