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