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Welcome to our “Spooktacular Stories Week” – a collection of days filled with relaxed learning and fun activities all themed to the spooky stories! Perfect for Halloween, late night camp fires, or just plain old spooky fun, this week is perfect for keeping little ones entertained and learning while they enjoy some not-too-scary days devoted to some ghost stories!
For our second day, we learned all about the Legend of Stingy Jack – and why we have pumpkins at Halloween! Read on to check out a fun filled day of learning, reading, crafts, and activities all themed to this trickster!
A TYPICAL DAY
All kids are different and you can definitely vary your day with whatever works for you 🙂 Our relaxed & learning fun day kicks off with an introduction to the day’s theme. Then, we move onto videos and themed activities (reading, writing – or story telling – time, crafts, food crafts/snacks, and games or experiments). Feel free to pick and choose whatever works for you 🙂
INTRO
Pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns are almost synonymous with Halloween, but do you know why that’s the case? Enter the Legend of Stingy Jack!
If they haven’t or aren’t familiar with the story of Stingy Jack, these sites are great introductions with interesting facts, images, and related content! They’re perfect for providing a brief intro for your little ones (or to gather up some knowledge as well!)!
- Stingy Jack facts for kids by Kiddle
- Kid History – The Legend of Stingy Jack by The Merchants and Drovers Tavern Museum
WHAT TO WATCH
We find that mixing in a short video themed to our day is a great way to add some learning fun! We try to pick informative videos OR mix in a cartoon favorite (where they don’t even realize they’re learning). Below are some of the videos we picked from for the day:
- Is Stingy Jack Real… The Secrets behind Jack-O-Lanterns | Halloween Facts and History by Educational Videos for Students (4m)
- bedtime stories kids novel short story THE LEGEND OF JACK O-LANTERN by Story Story Night (5m)
FOOD CRAFTS / SNACKS
What’s more fun than taking a break and having a simple snack??? Including the snack in your theme of the day! We find that our kiddos are more than happy to eat the snacks they create especially when they can arrange them into fun shapes and scenes!
For our snack of the day, we opted for pumpkin bread! But anything with pumpkins would do too!
READING
It’s no secret that reading is an important part of learning, which is why we pick out a handful of books that are fun and filled with some learning tidbits. For our older ones, we have them fill out some worksheets (or let them create some of their own comics) to describe what they read and/or learned! These are a few we picked from for the day:
- The Legend of Stingy Jack by Jeremiah Witting
WRITING & WRITING PROMPTS
Just like reading, writing is a great way to keep kids learning by both encouraging their creativity and thought process as well as helping them practice their motor skills and penmanship.
If you’ve got a little one, have them trace words related to the theme: GHOST, SPOOKY, STORIES, STINGY JACK
If you’ve got older children, have them write a sentence or two up to a page or two (depending on their age). Encourage them to be creative AND give reasons for why they made certain choices. This was our writing prompt of the day (and we offered up some examples as well) but definitely pick something your kiddo might be interested in writing about!
- Is the Legend of Stingy Jack scary? If not, what would you add to make it more scary? If yes, what would you change to make it less scary?
- Write a different origin story for the Halloween pumpkin. Be sure to include mythical elements and lessons learned!
CREATE & CRAFT
If you’ve got a crafty little one, a simple craft is a great way to keep them interested in the topic. While their creative juices are flowing, you can also chat about what they’ve learned so far or ask them what else they’re excited about learning! Below are some of the crafts we looked at:
- Pumpkin Carving and/or Decorating!
- Jack O Lantern Sticker Activity Sheets
- Tiny Pumpkin Accessory Crochet Kit
STEM & STEAM ACTIVITIES
While crafting and writing get their creativity and imagination flowing, we also like to add in an activity that gets them thinking along the lines of science, technology, engineering, or math! These engaging activities or experiments are a great way to keep them learning!
For our experiment of the day, we decided to investigate something that we thought would be very useful to us. If you’re like us, carving pumpkins is great fun, but they don’t seem to last that long! There are quite a few ideas on how to prep the pumpkin, how to treat it after, etc. So, we tried our hand at figuring out the best method for us! For experiment purposes, we concentrated on what to apply to the pumpkin before / after carving. (But there are TONS of other tips and tricks to try out). To ensure they were thinking about this scientifically, we made sure they followed the scientific method with hypotheses and comparing results!
THANK YOU
Thank you so much for checking out our ghost story week! If you did enjoy this, please let us know below or follow us on Pinterest. Also, If you’re still looking for more Halloween Learning Fun, check out our other days in our Spooktacular Stories Week, Halloween Week, or Halloween Ideas!
Happy Learning & Happy Halloween!
MORE SPOOKTACULAR FUN:
Trick or Treat: It’s Halloween Week!
15+ Family Friendly Halloween Parties!
