Fun Dressing Game for Halloween
Lesson Plan for The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything
Oct 13, 2009
Teach children helpful and useful hands-on skills with stations designed to follow a reading of The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything [HarperCollins, 1986] by Linda Williams. This book uses sequencing with various articles of clothing. After the story, the children’s excitement can be channeled into Halloween dressing stations that incorporate fine motor skills, problem solving, and hand-eye coordination as well as helping them to become more independent.
Supplies for Halloween Dressing Stations
- Shoes with laces or shoes of various sizes
- Pants with zippers and snaps (check zippers and snaps to ensure that they work properly)
- Shirts with buttons of various sizes (ensure buttons are secure and can be buttoned easily)
- Several pairs of gloves in a bag
- Various types of hats and ball(s) (ideas for hats include a witch’s hat, fire fighter’s hat, toboggan, top hat, ball cap, crown, etc.)
- Pumpkin bucket and bean bags with a clearly marked place(s) for children to stand
- Watch or clock
How to Set-up for Halloween Dressing Stations
- Arrange the six stations around the room in a circle or labeled with large numbers so that children can find the station to which they will move next.
- Ensure that laces are untied, pants are unzipped, shirts are unbuttoned, etc. before starting.
- Decide on a designated time for children to work at each station.
- Explain and demonstrate what to do at each station, making sure to tell the kids not to put on any articles of clothing.
- If children will prepare each station for the next child, show them how to leave the stations. If adults are helping, give suggestions for preparing the stations for the next children.
- Have the children to count off by six and ask the children to raise their hands when calling each number to ensure that they remember their number.
- Ask for questions before beginning.
How to Play Halloween Dressing Stations Game
Have the children enter the stations and practice skills for the designated period of time. Offer assistance and feedback. At the designated time, instruct children move to the next station until each child has visited all stations.
- Shoe Station: Children practice tying shoes. If tying is too difficult, substitute lacing or ordering from smallest to largest.
- Pants Station: Children practice zipping and unzipping, snapping and unsnapping.
- Shirt Station: Kids practice buttoning and unbuttoning.
- Gloves Station: Kids practice pairing. If time permits, group them by colors.
- Hat Station: Children practice balancing different hats on a ball. Another child or an adult can hold the ball or the ball may be placed on the table for a harder challenge. If time permits, see how many hats the child can stack on one ball.
- Pumpkin Station: Kids can practice throwing their “dirty laundry” into the “clothes hamper.” Kids stand at the starting place and throw bean bags into the bucket. If time permits, increase the distance for a harder challenge. Clothespins can be substituted if bean bags are unavailable.
Stationary Halloween Dressing Game
If groups are small, have limited mobility, time or space is limited, or supplies are plentiful, have the children sit in a circle for a stationary twist to the Halloween Dressing Stations. Provide each child with a bag containing one shoe, a pair of pants, a shirt, one glove, one hat, and several bean bags. Instruct children to remove one article and then place it back in the bag before moving to the next article.
- Shoes: Have children take the shoe out of the bag. The adult will have the match for each shoe. The adult begins by passing one shoe around the circle until the child with the matching shoe is holding it.
- Pants: Have children take the pants out of the bag and practice zipping and snapping.
- Shirts: Have children take out the shirt and practice buttoning and unbuttoning.
- Gloves: Either have children to match gloves as with the shoes or to raise their glove when a matching color is called.
- Hats: Have kids take the hat out of his or her bag and tell what sort of person might wear the hat they are holding.
- Pumpkin: Have the children take turns sitting or standing and tossing their bean bags into the pumpkin.
Fun and Active Lesson Plan for The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything
Help kids practice useful skills by using Halloween Dressing Stations. Whether kids move around the room or learn together in a circle, this game can provide a fun way for children of various abilities to practice tying, zipping, buttoning, pairing, balancing, throwing, and more. This idea can also be combined with a clothing drive for families in need.
Readers may also be interested in reading about making fun footprint ghosts and tips for providing Safe Treats for Children with Special Needs such as food allergies or celiac disease. Visit the Scarecrow, Scarecrow web site for additional teaching tips to accompany The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything – some of the links do not work on that site, but the teaching tips and pictures on the page are interesting.
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