Goblins, Ghouls & Ghost Stories

For those of you that love all that is spooky and ghoulish Halloween is the perfect time to create lessons that focus on ghouls, goblins and ghost stories! One of my favorite things to do at Halloween is to have my students create masks out of construction paper and other art supplies, using string tied through either side of the mask to tie it on.

Some Ideas for Masks:
- http://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/LESSONS/hallo_2.htm
- http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/maskcrafts - printable masks
- http://www.seussville.com/grinch/pdf/mask.pdf - awesome Grinch mask – I know…it’s not Christmas but it’s cool

Once these are completed I like to have my students sit down in a circle and in my most ghoulish voice tell them some ghost stories.

Check out the links below for some ideas for ghost stories:

One ghost in particular that I enjoy telling my students about simply because he seems to be a benign ghost, and also because it is relatively easy to relate the story to all age groups and abilities, is the ghost of Althorp Park. As some of you may know Althorp Park is famous for being the childhood home of the former Princess of Wales, otherwise known as Princess Diana. It is said that this sixteenth century house is haunted by a former servant whose responsibility when alive was to ensure that no candles were left burning at night. Since his death, it is reported that many visitors who have left candles burning see him appear dressed in his pajamas and carrying a lantern, however, when they question what he is doing he simply disappears. Now that’s one fickle ghost!

After telling the story - play a game where everyone gets to contribute to creating their very own classroom ghost story. The teacher would begin by starting the ghost story, this can be done either verbally or on a piece of paper. Following this the teacher would then have the next student add on to the story and stop them after a short time, having the person beside them carry it on. If students are too young to participate in something like this you can focus on vocabulary words for different monsters such as: Werewolves, vampires, witches and ghosts and have them act them out for me. Both of these activities are a lot of fun and the children love to have an excuse to act like little Monsters!