Scary Closets
Tonight I was terrorized by 4 monsters -- ages 5 to 8. With wonderful ideas from Gary, tonight’s read-aloud at the homeless shelter was all about monsters and the kids loved it.
We started out with Where the Wild Things Are, a story about a young boy Max who is punished by being sent to his room with no supper. His room quickly grows a forest and he sails off in a boat to a land of monsters who crown him king of the monsters. When he banishes them to bed with no dinner, he gets lonely and sails home to find his dinner (still warm) waiting for him.
There’s a Nightmare in My Closet made everyone (including the adult volunteers) think about what has made them afraid from time to time as they are going to sleep. For one girl, it was a wicked pink bunny. For another it was a mean mother.
After another couple of monster books, we moved on to a very clever activity. There was a big poster of one of the monsters who befriended Max just waiting to be colored. When it had yellow eyes and purple horns and red scales, the kids were ready to play pin the tail on the monster. The tails actually consisted of curled ribbon with tape on the end. Our decorated monster ended up with tails in bizarre places and we ended up with 15 minutes left, so each child drew and colored his/her personal monster. There were zombies and snakes and just plain scary figures.
I’ll bet most of us have a nightmare in our closets, something that threatens to haunt us as we go to sleep from time to time. Sometimes these nightmares stay around for a long time unfortunately.
Any monsters haunting you?
posted by Barbara at 8:57 PM
5 Comments:
Yippee! I love this. Actually this week I thought of another title "Go Away Big Green Monster" by Ed Emberly (along with Glad Monster, Sad Monster) but didn't contact you in time.
It seems like your night was a success. This makes me happy. Great activity idea with the pin the tail on the monster. I hope that one of these 'ol days I will get there to share in the fun.
Blessings to you dear Barbara.
I'd say the closet itself is the nightmare. :)
You're a marvel - wish I'd been there!
My monster lived under my bed and was generically named The Thing. If even one tiny bit of me was uncovered, The Thing would reach up and grab me, drag me under the bed and devour me. Even now, on the hottest summer nights, I start my night completely covered with a sheet...
You're a good person Barbara.
Time. That's my monster, my nightmare, the thing that keeps me up at night. There's never enough, so I think of what can be done and what needs to slide. Maybe with a little more sleep I could get more done.
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