Mother Goose Monday: Halloween Special

Mother Goose Time at Halloween is more about parents/nannies dressing the kids up in costumes and the kids not being happy about it. Last week, in fact, I told the parents I would open the story room 10 minutes early so that they can take pictures to their heart's content, and then divest the kids of any uncomfortable clothes during the program!

We'll do spider songs--"Itsy Bitsy/Eeency Weency" is popular year round, of course.
And then the basket the usually contains various animal puppets for "Grandpa's Farm" will have a spider puppet in it so we can sing Raffi's "Spider on the Floor". This is an ideal "tickle" song and also, of course, names parts of the body.
This video has Raffi's original version, plus some funny spider pictures--arachnophobic types, beware!





Then there is the song I posted last week--"The Pumpkin Song" and "Five Little Pumpkins" I don't like "piggyback" songs, but adding "the ghosts on the bus go boo boo boo" or "the black cats on the bus go meow, meow,meow" is a nice Halloweenish supplement to "Wheels on the Bus", and we sing that every week anyway! And last but not least is this poem--in fact, I usually START all my Halloween story times with this action poem by Nancy Carlstrom of "Jesse Bear" fame. Sadly, "Who Said Boo?" is out of print. I am not giving the gestures--they're pretty easy to guess at or make up:

 ON HALLOWEEN NIGHT

This is the way the cats walk, the cats walk, the cats walk.
This is the way the cats walk on Halloween night.
Pit! Pat! Pit Pat! Pit! Pat!
On Halloween night
Repeat with:
The kids walk.....trip trap.....
The wind walks....rip, rap....
The trees walk....scritch scratch....
The moon walks....tip, tap.
All of them together:The moon walks... The trees walk....The winds walks....The kids walk...The cats walk.....
 On Halloween Night!

And it occurred to me the other day that I COULD add my own verse--about the bats flying.
They are going to go FLIP-FLAP!

Since I didn't get to publish this on Monday, I've already done my Tuesday programs. I recorded at both Mother Goose and the 2 and up set's story time, and liked the older kids' program version better, so here's a podcast of us doing it:

Coming as soon as I can get it up here: some extra special Halloween stories!