7 Tips for a Happy Halloween in the Library
Do you want to have a Happy Halloween in your library, while still focusing on your main objective…to support the love of reading? Try these 7 tips!
Tip 1: Welcome the Kids
Why let the classroom teachers have all the fun? Decorate your door (if allowed) with holiday images. Catch their eye as they walk past the library. In an elementary setting, be sure your ghouls and goblins are not too scary!
Students could go on a Halloween library scavenger hunt, finding spooky things hidden around the library (a map of Transylvania, the Goosebumps chapter book series, five facts about bats, a black cat stuffed animal, a biography of Edgar Allen Poe, a book on growing pumpkins).
Or, try this digital scavenger hunt: Spooky Halloween Library Scavenger Hunt for BOOM Cards:
Tip 2: Decorate for the Holiday
Decorate in festive holiday fashion. I change my bulletin boards every month, to reflect the season, holiday or special event at that time of year. I have several bulletin boards inside the library and several outside. It’s fun for the kids to see something entertaining while waiting for dismissal. Try to incorporate books whenever possible. The bats, ghosts, and tombstones on this bulletin board all feature the title of a Halloween book.
If you have room on your circulation desk, put out a few pumpkins, black cats, or witches. It gives the kids something to look at while waiting to have their book checked out. Classroom teachers can do the same on their desk (or if there’s no room, put out a display on a small table near the door).
Tip 3: Put Halloween Books on Display
Of course, books should always be our main focus. Pull as many as your can off the shelves and put them on display. As you are reading Halloween books to your classes, don’t neglect the older students. There are many picture books that are suitable for upper elementary. Or even, read part of a chapter book. Nothing stimulates interest in reading like slamming a book shut and saying, “To be continued…..”
Tip 4: Create a Halloween Maker Space
If you do STEM activities in your Maker Space, give them a Halloween twist. We created catapults from popsicle sticks and instead of shooting pom-poms, we flung plastic spiders and rubber monster eyeballs all over the place! I distributed foam Halloween stickers and the kids made scenes that they wrote stories about. Your robots could follow a haunted pathway. Just brainstorm a few ideas!
Tip 5: Participate in the Festivities
Don’t be the stereotypical fussbudget librarian of yore. If the rest of the faculty is dressing in costumes, go for it! Join the Kindergarten parade. One year, I even persuaded my principal to dress up as the Cat in the Hat, while my assistant and I were Thing 1 and Thing 2! Another year, I dressed up as Clifford (no, not the big red dog….the book…complete with spine label and bar code).
Tip 6: Give Out Goodies
I have the feeling you will not be allowed to give out candy (we save that for the faculty room, LOL). But your can still give out other goodies, like bookmarks, joke pages, word searches, coloring sheets. Make the library the fun destination of the school!
Tip 7: Halloweenize Your Lessons
Put a Halloween spin on your regular lessons! If you’re teaching kids to search the online catalog, have them find particular Halloween books. Dictionary time? Look up spooky words. Biographies? People born on Halloween, like Harry Houdini. Doing research? How about Halloween trivia?
So, I hope these tips help you to have a Happy Halloween in your library (or classroom), while still focusing on academics. Going to the library should be a treat…even on Halloween!
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