Halloween Bugs Book and Craft for Preschoolers

I just love Fall and Halloween, can you tell?  There's so much fun to be had!

One of my favorite books for toddlers and preschoolers is Halloween Bugs by David Carter.  The kids just can't seem to get enough of this little lift-the-flap book!  Even my elementary school-aged kids love it.  Each page features a unique lift-the-flap door with a bug-in-disguise hiding behind.  Some of the bugs pop out, some have crazy hair, and some are just plain silly.  Another feature I love is that it has repetitive-line text.   Each page asks, "Who's behind the _____ door?"

I'm using it this week to work with young preschoolers who are working on building two-word phrases and/or consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words.  I can easily change the text to suit whichever goal I'm working on.  For example, instead of using "Who's behind the door?", I might say "Knock knock!" to target a CVC word.  Before I allow the child to open the door, I might have him say "Open door"  or "red door" to target a two-word phrase.  Depending on what we find behind the door, we can say a descriptive CVC word, and we can say "bug".  Before we close the door again, we can say "Bye Bug".

Download this page to make the Knock Knock Paper Bag Book

I made a little activity to go along with this book that my students can take home with them.  It's a book whose pages are made from paper lunch sacks!  This is how I did it.  I cut out the "Knock Knock!" squares and the Halloween graphics from the printout you can grab here.  I used darling graphics from Scrappin' Doodles to make it.

I stacked four paper lunch sacks and cut off the top 3-4'' and then stapled them together.

I glued one "Knock Knock" square on the first paper sack, and a red rectangle door that I cut from card stock on top of the bag bottom, which is like a flap.

I lifted the flap and glued the moon graphic under the flap, and then flattened the flap to close the door. I like to let my graphics peek out a bit from behind the door to give the kids a hint to what they might find when they open it.  Repeat for the remaining pages.  You could change the colors of each door if you want, or you could just draw a door shape using a marker if you don't have time to cut and paste on doors.  In fact, I've been drawing doors on the flaps all week and it's actually worked out better.  You can make the doors "spooky" by letting the child put Halloween stickers on them, too.  That's it!  Super easy, and super fun.

You could do a variation of this book with older kids, too.  Just think up a repetitive line that will work with your goals, and write it with a marker on each page.  If you're working on adjectives, you could let your students make the doors be dusty, sparkly, spooky or whatever you decide.  You could have the kids make bugs to hide behind the doors, just like in the book, and you could embellish them with yarn, paper shreds, googly eyes, etc.  Or, check this out:  I grabbed this cute memory game made by Carrie at Carrie's Speech Corner last week from Pinterest.  Thanks, Carrie!  You could hide these cute trick-or-treaters behind your doors!  Language opportunities abound!

I hope you find this idea as much fun as I do!


Pam