Thirteen Days of Halloween Day 11: Frankenstein Friday

Happy Frankenstein Friday! This holiday hoopla is celebrated the last Friday of October and pays homage to one of my favorite Halloween icons - Frankenstein's Monster (I was an English major - getting the name right is kind of a big deal to me).

What can you do to celebrate Frankenstein Friday? I'm so glad you asked!

First of all, watching the original 1931 film (featuring Boris Karloff as the monster) might be a bit over the top for some (most) kids, but luckily there's a great kid friendly adaptation by one of my very favorite freaky-family-friendly film creators - Tim Burton: Frankenweenie. I love the complete black-and-white filming of this movie and it easily lends itself to encouraging kids to explore their own mad scientist tendencies (STEM anyone?).

Of course, any good movie needs a good snack to accompany it, and there are a few fun options that tie into the Frankenstein theme. First, you can go the healthy route - here is a super simple Frankenstein apple idea from NonToy Gifts and a more complicated Frankenstein Kiwi idea from Two Healthy Kitchens.

Looking for some more crowd friendly, but still healthy, ideas that you can whip up and snap but will definitely be show stoppers? Here's a super cute (and super easy) idea from Blue Skies Ahead to make a Frankenstein veggie platter and a Bride of Frankenstein (he can't have all the fun, can he?) dip platter that looks amazing from Fork and Beans.

Now, with the snack options covered (not that there aren't a million more, remember, Pintrest is your friend). We can take a look at some fun craft ideas to keep hands busy. Our kids LOVE legos and I found this cool diagram (sorry, no instructions) for making a Frankenstein's monster out of legos that was part of the build together network (not absorbed by lego.com).We're going to expand the idea and have the kid create mad scientist labs to house their Frankenstein's monsters. I also found a fun game from House a Forest called Roll a Frankenstein. I personally love dice games because I happen to have quite a collection in various colors and shapes (I might be a self-proclaimed nerd).

Want something a little more crafty for your little hands to do? Here's a really cute Frankenstein sun catcher idea found at From ABCs to ACTs and and Frankenstein Foldable Craft from Artists Helping Children.

I love themed days like this because it lets me pull out all the stops for a special Thirteen Days of Halloween. Do you have any fun Frankenstein's Monster themed ideas? Are you celebrating Frankenstein Friday? Let me know!

Thirteen Days of Halloween Day 10 - Pumpkin Day

I love, love, love pumpkins. I don't think it's healthy, actually. I go crazy for pumpkin spice anything, I can't get a cactus to live yet I muddle through an attempt at a pumpkin patch at least every five years (just long enough to forget just how bad I am at growing things), a visit to my favorite local pumpkin patch (shout out to Fredrickson Farms in Carl Junction, MO) is a necessity, and I have pumpkins everywhere! Imagine my delight when I discovered that there is actually a National Pumpkin Day!

So what does a devoted pumpkin-lover do to celebrate National Pumpkin Day? Um, can you say ALL THE THINGS?!? Okay, so I understand that the kids might not share my extreme love of all things pumpkin and so I turn down my pumpkin-meter just a smidge when I'm preparing activities for the club. First, we need a pumpkin themed snack. The kids are always excited when we have food, and even the big kids get happy with themed food (even if they are too cool to admit it most of the time). For our super cute snack we're having Tangerine Pumpkins found over at Bren Did. 

After we enjoy a healthy and super cute snack it's time for daily programs! First program is triple play where we often do games in the gym. For National Pumpkin Day, we are playing a pumpkin broom race that is super simple from One Charming Party. If your group doesn't have real pumpkins, some other options are to use orange balloons or foam pumpkins (I was able to find very inexpensive ones at Dollar Tree this year).

After our game in the gym, we move to Power Hour and Project Learn. Power Hour is pretty basic - it's homework time, but for Project Learn we do a fun learning activity each day. For National Pumpkin Day, it's a great opportunity to incorporate some pumpkin science. I found a fun idea over at Little Bins for Little Hands I was surprised to find how many of our kids don't get the opportunity to actually experience "pumpkin guts" because so many families no longer carve pumpkins. Well, I felt like that was a kid experience that everyone should have, so the first step of pumpkin science is actually a bit of pumpkin dissection. I cut the top off our pumpkin and let the kid take the opportunity to feel the pumpkin guts and pull some out. Don't throw those guts away - clean the seeds off and roast them for kids to try. After the pumpkin is cleaned out, it's time to carve a simple face. As this uses sharp objects, it's an adult demonstration activity. If you want, you can do this in a two pumpkin-process so that you have one already carved and ready for the volcanic effect. Make sure if you're using a carved pumpkin, make sure you've got it placed on a large sheet pan or a hotel pan so that you don't have such a mess to clean up at the end.

Do you have favorite pumpkin themed activities? What does your club to do incorporate pumpkin science? Do you share my ultimate love of pumpkins? Let me know!

Thirteen Days of Halloween - Day 1: Friday the 13th

Halloween is my absolute FAVORITE holiday ever! When I was younger my family had an annual Halloween party the Saturday before Halloween where I was allowed to invite my entire class for a wonderful costume party. We would have wonderfully creepy food, my parents would play the best Halloween themed music from across the generations (Meatloaf's Bat Out of Hell could have been followed by Micheal Jackson's Thriller).

As a child our house was considered the "go to" house when Trick or Treating as well because my dad (a bread route delivery man) would bring home racks and racks of snack cakes to pass out for treats. When my own kids were younger we always celebrated Halloween BIG in our house with lots of decor, and a wide range of treats (though never anything as awesome as what my dad did when I was a kid) and making sure to help host awesome classroom parties. Now that my own kids are way too old for classroom parties (colleges tend to frown on such things as room moms) I celebrate big with my club kids.

This year I made the wonderful discovery that if you count back thirteen weekdays from Halloween it just so happens that you land on Friday the Thirteenth. I can't tell you how happy this made my dark Halloween loving heart. 

So, to kick off the Thirteen Days of Halloween we're watching on of my most beloved childhood Halloween memories - Disney's Halloween Treat (you can follow the link <--- to watch this most glorious show in its entirety on youtube).

We're also decorating our club with a wonderful Halloweeny atmosphere and I'm taking inspiration from the intro music for the Disney Halloween treat:

Calling one and all tonight It's hopping at the ball tonight Drop in at the ball tonight Disney's Halloween Treat Creatures on the prowl tonight Creatures fair and foul tonight They'll meet you at the ball tonight At Disney's Halloween Treat Black cats and bats and ghosts Make most attractive hosts They're dieing for a dance with you So play that haunting refrain Tricks and treats to try tonight You'll be riding high tonight Your spirits gonna fly tonight Disney's Halloween Treat Disney's Halloween Treat It's a scream!

So, we're decorating with black cats and bats and ghosts (and pumpkins and spiders too!) We have created a Bat Cave in our art studio with lots of bats and ghosts and our library is a pumpkin patch with a few black cats scattered about. Decorating photos will come with more Thirteen Days of Halloween posts!

What are your favorite Halloween memories? How do you celebrate with kids now? Let me know!

International Day of the Girl - October 11

Today is International Day of the Girl and our club is celebrating in some wonderful ways. First, we have a phenomenal staff member who is going to share his views on respect and courtesy for all genders and basically encouraging gentlemanly behavior. 

Then we're showing a video from the Day of the Girl website discussing girls in STEM careers, and exploring some ways we can encourage girls to feel more accepted in the world of STEM.

Finally (my favorite part) we're announcing a new partnership. For several years we've had a partnership with Boy Scouts; each month they prepare for us a kit of supplies and bring it out to our site and a few times a year the Boy Scout council representative will come out and do projects with our kids (all of our kids - not just the boys). Things like the pinewood derby and rain gutter regatta have been favorites. They also invite us out to a day of camp each summer and all of our kids go have a great time. BUT, it's still Boy Scouts. Our girls know that they don't have their own program and it's been something I've wanted to remedy since I started working at the club. I'm so excited to announce that we have a pilot partnership with Girl Scouts. We will have our own troop here at the club and while the council representative will come out and visit from time to time, the council staffers won't be the ones responsible for weekly programming. I'll be facilitating a multi-level troop within our club and we are the very first club in our council to have this program available for our girls. To day I'm excited is an understatement. 

How have you celebrated the International Day of the Girl? Does your organization have a partnership with other groups? Has it worked well for you or have you learned something valuable from the experience? Let me know!

Career Exploration AND Holiday Hoopla - World Post Day

According to the Universal Postal Union's website, the purpose of Universal Post Day is to "bring awareness to the Post's role in the everyday lives of people and businesses, as well as its contribution to global social and economic development". This holiday seemed like an open invitation to showcase a Career Exploration into a postal career. An easy way to accomplish this could be to have a mail carrier or post master visit your group and discuss their career. Another idea could be to take your group to the local post office for a tour. 

You could also put together a project that shows just how amazing our mail service is. We've got a project in the works to start a pen pal club with a group I met at a recent conference. When we send them our package, I'm adding tracking service to it so that our kids can see how far their package travels each day on it's way to our new friends. Some learning activities involved with this are going to be using technology to determine the distance between our club and theirs and to find out how long it would take to travel if we drove the club bus, took a flight on an airplane, or walked. Then we'll compare how long it takes our package to arrive at it's destination.

Have you had a Career Exploration with someone working in the Postal Service? Have you had experiences with having a group pen pal exchange? Let me know!

Holiday Hoopla - Mad Hatter Day

Mad Hatter Day came about because a group of computer techs decided in 1986 to have a day to celebrate silliness. The designation of the day comes from the tag on the Mad Hatter's Hat that indicates 10/6 (which actually shows the hat style of the order). In our facility we are celebrating Mad Hatter day with a celebration of all things Alice in Wonderland.

There are some simple ways to incorporate an Alice in Wonderland theme day in your facility - the first is snack. We do a daily after school snack and for Mad Hatter Day what is more appropriate than tea? Some of our kids have probably never even tried hot tea so it will be a first. If you have a small group, having a variety of real teacups is neat, but if you've got a large group like we do that's a little complicated. Instead, we'll be sampling hot tea (served out of styrofoam cups) and have some lovely teacakes and finger sandwiches. One of my favorites is to make banana bread and slice it thin enough to make sandwiches filled with cream cheese.

For games we will be playing croquet. Now, we don't have a croquet set, but we can improvise with pink lawn flamingos, small dodge balls, and goals fashioned from half hula hoops.

Have you celebrated Mad Hatter Day or had an Alice in Wonderland themed day with your group? Let me know!

Holiday Hoopla AND Service Skills - World Teachers' Day

Know what's better than a Holiday Hoopla post? A Holiday Hoopla AND Service Skills post! World Teachers' Day gives us a chance to celebrate and serve those people who contribute everyday to making our world a better place - our teachers. Our club has started a new program to honor our teachers at our school sites where we choose a teacher of the month to say a special thank you to. Each site has the kids vote on who their teacher of the month is and we make them a card, give them some teacher-oriented goodies (office supplies!) along with a treat that the kids have made (things like snack mix, cookies, etc). It doesn't take a lot of money, but it means a lot to these teachers to be recognized from an outside organization.

So, what can you do if you want to celebrate World Teachers' Day but you're not ready to commit to having a monthly ongoing project? Why not take a platter of goodies to leave in the teachers' lounge with a nice card signed by all of your kids? Groups could also make personalized gift bags for the teachers in your school. Purchase small gift bags and fill them with teacher-friendly tidbits like sticky notes, pens, some hard candies or chocolates, and a gift card for a local coffee shop.

How do you celebrate the special teachers in your life? Do you do something special for teachers at your school sites? Let me know!

Culture Corner AND Holiday Hoopla - Sukkot

Sukkot, or the Festival of Booths, is a Jewish celebration that takes place in September or October.  It is a time of giving thanks for a bountiful harvest.  One of the customs of Sukkot is to build a harvest booth, or sukkah, in a place outside the house.  The sukkah is decorated with harvest fruits, and a roof is made by placing green tree branches across the top.  During the week-long festival, many families often gather inside the sukkah to eat their meals.

Making a Sukkah

Let your children help create a sukkah for your celebration.  To make a three-sided booth, place two chairs against a wall, about four feet apart, with their backs to each other.  Make a roof of branches topping with a green blanket.  Let children use play food or plastic fall decorations to decorate their sukkah.

Another option for making your own sukkah that I have found online is to build one out of legos. This example was found at Bible Belt Balabusta.

It is Harvest Time

Sung to: "Ten Little Indians"

Gather up the food and put it in your basket,

Gather up the food and put it in your basket,

Gather up the food and put it in your basket.

It is harvest time.

Additional Verses: Gather up the corn, the grapes, the pumpkins, the apples, the nuts, the carrots, the berries, etc.

Harvest Snacks

At snack time discuss foods that are harvested.  Set our bowls of foods such as nuts, seeds, dried fruits and raw veggies.  Let each child place a small amount from each bowl in a resealable plastic sandwich bag and eat their snack in your sukkah.

Because Sukkot happens during the harvest, apples are a traditional food. I found a new take on the candy apple using one of my favorite foods - chocolate!- at Chabad and we will definitely be trying this out. I'm thinking that perhaps adding a layer of chocolate over a caramel dipped apple would also be wonderful!

One of the first questions I had when looking for Sukkot ideas was how to incorporate culture without religion. This is a fine line as the two are interwoven throughout the world. When I present any of these projects I am careful to refer to them as part of Jewish culture and we do not mention the religious aspect of any of these activities. I believe it is important to educate our children about as many cultures of the world as we can. We truly only fear what we do not understand.

So, what do you do to celebrate culture in your organization? Do you have a fun and exciting way to introduce a culture or do you have a special way to let parents know what to expect when you showcase a new culture? Let me know!

Graphics for this post from