Cool! I think this would be a great way to get students creative about their costumes. I can't tell you how many Hannah Montanas I've already seen! *gag*
And I get the no mask restriction... safety if nothing else. But come on... there are a lot of books with witches in them. Seems a bit like having your cake and eating it too...
Glad it went well, though.
EMMM

My kids go to two different schools, two different school systems. My daughtern (kindergarten) goes to a city public school and NO HALLOWEEN allowed. They had a "fall festival" party today, and we made costumes for the kids - that was as close as they could get to Halloween. Some parents brought Halloween goodies bags for each child.

My son (4th grade) goes to a charter school, and they do a heck of a Halloween show! Every child wears or brings a costume, and they do a big school wide parade after lunch, so everyone can see everyone else's costumes. Fun ;-))

I teach preschool and it's up to each teacher - in our class, we wear our costumes, all day if you want to (it's only a half day program).

I like the literary character/book dress up day. We did that in my son's former school when we had "Read a Thon" week. One day was "come as your favorite book character". One year my son was Cat in the Hat, and two teachers down the hall were Thing 1 and Thing 2 - they took a group picture for the yearbook ;-))

Mama Fox, who dressed as a "Pumpkin Fairy" today - all orange, with "bling" ;-))

My son goes to a public school kindergarten and they did a "Mrs. Spiders Tea Party".

Silva Foot Family

We also had book character dress up day. We have it every year. Everyone is encouraged to carry their book around with them. The only restrictions are no masks and no swords, guns, etc.

NO Halloween here in public school. However, I have made my own pantheon of holidays: Talk Like a PIrate Day, Eric Carle week, Dr. Suess Day, PJs, Cereal Celebration. Parents who do not do traditional holidays are thrilled their kids can still play games with the rest of us and make crafts, and no one feels preassured to outdo anyone with treats or whatever.

This was the BEST "Halloween Party" ever! I teach 4th grade. We have some restrictions school-wide about costumes and food to be served. This year I decided to have a mystery party instead of the usual games. The whole month of October my students worked on reading mystery books independently. We also focused on inferencing skills and they created a diorama for one of the mysteries they read. The mystery party was the culminating activity. There were 9 suspects and 12 detectives (working in pairs.) The suspects were given scripted answers to questions the detectives were supposed to ask them. The mystery invoved a costume party so parents were asked in advance to supply props for the suspects' costumes. It turned out really well! They kids said it was the best Halloween party ever! I found the mystery party on the internet and bought it. I would definitely recommend it to everyone! Some of the detectives were able to sift through the clue and distractions and solve the case! -Cherokee Rose 2

I work at a charter school and not only did we NOT do Halloween, but we didn't even have school. Our entire district was off today for conferences. I personally would love to have a big Halloween party, but I know that's never going to happen in this area.

Maiden

Well, we told the students no witches, but we had a few little witches running around. Our principal sent out an email and told us to refer to them as wizards.... I'm not sure why that makes it any better, but it made her feel better.

I'm all KINDS of interested in this. Which mystery did you buy? I just spent about 2 weeks looking at different ones online and found some of them really complicated. Could more kids have played or was 21 the limit of the game?

I'd love some more details!

Hi everyone, I was wondering how your schools handle Halloween each year. Typically we are not to wear costumes. This year we chose to do a "book character dress up day" allowing students and teachers to wear their costumes. The only restrictions were no witches or masks. It went really well and there was NO drama about having to or not getting to wear a costume.

I kinda liked the book character thing...we did that when I was in Texas (just outside of Dallas in Carrollton) and it was much more creative. The only fuss I ever heard was from parents who claimed they had to come up with two costumes...one for the school book thing and one for trick-or-treating that night. Why they didn't just use the same thing for both, I don't know.

Up here, it's just regular Halloween parties and parade (except in my room, where the kids chose to do a candy exchange on the half day next Friday instead of have to buy more treats for yesterday to share...we still did the parade, though). The kindergarten starts the costume parade and walks through every class picking up students as it goes. Then we all go outside and everyone walks past moms and dads with cameras, etc.

I was always bummed as a kid because we were Jehovah's Witnesses back then. I missed EVERYTHING...and, man, they had parties for every holiday imaginable back then, it seemed, even St. Patty's Day. But, in a town our size, there's a lot less diversity in religious background/beliefs, so it's still possible to just do the same thing for everyone. Not sure if that's an up or a down side, really...!

I teach in a small rural school (town's population is 1,100) and we wear Halloween costumes all day and have a party in the last 45 minutes with story telling, 1 treat but the rest "good" food, and music. The PTA hosts a party tonight with all the games and goodies.

Our art teacher is from Scotland. She tells of going "guising" (short for disguise-ing) and practicing for days beforehand because when you knocked on a door, you performed. In return, you received apples or sometimes even money.

GO to www.kids-mysteries.com
I bought "The Chocolaty Case of the Costume Conspiracy."
It could definitely be played by more than 21. There are 9 suspects so 27 would work nicely if you wanted to have the detectives work in pairs. They have mysteries that work for older and possibly younger kids too.
Cherokee Rose 2