And the answer to the most popular October question in the library is...

Yes, yes, yes, we WILL be having a Haunted House Museum in the library again this year!

Here is the how-to and information being sent home with students:

How-to:  Take a cardboard box and cut holes in it for windows. Paint or otherwise cover the box with a seasonal color like orange, black, green or purple. Decorate the outside of your house with ghosts, trick-or-treaters, rotting trees…use your imagination! 

• No blood or gore or headless dolls, sorry! We are celebrating imagination and folklore, not horror.
• If you don’t celebrate Halloween, that’s fine! We welcome fall houses and autumn scenes as well.
• Please do not attach any real food to your creation. Cockroaches are even scarier than ghosts.
• Please do not include or attach anything valuable to your creation. 
• Yes, you can work with a friend or friends or family! 
• You can light it inside with a flashlight or battery-operated lights! 
• You don’t have to make it a house. It can be a haunted apartment building, or a haunted theater, or a haunted sports event, or a haunted store, or…whatever idea you have! 
• Please ask for a grown-up’s help for cutting out windows or when using new or messy craft materials. 
• This is not an assignment for a grade. This is extra credit and for FUN! 
•  Haunted houses and fall houses are to be made at home. They can be dropped off in the library any morning before October 29. Haunted houses go home on Halloween.
• Remember to put your name and room number on your monsterpiece masterpiece! 

And!  NEW this year! I wanted something a little more sophisticated just for the older children, so they could have a special part in our seasonal celebration and children who have made haunted houses for the past couple of years could have a new activity to look forward to.  To that end,  7th and 8th graders may participate in our new Gallery of Pumpkins, featuring decorated pumpkins and gourds, to be brought in on either October 29th or 30th. Click here for funny pumpkin ideas, or here for free stencils!

The pumpkin-decorating rules for the big kids:
• No blood, real or fake. Remember, little kids will be seeing your creation, too. Please, keep it school-appropriate.
•  Please get your parent or guardian’s permission and help before using any sharp objects to carve your pumpkin.
 • YES, You may work with a friend, friends or family.
 • YES, you can still make a haunted house instead of or in addition to a pumpkin for the gallery.  These activities are optional!
• Any lighting in the pumpkin must be done with flashlights or LED lights. No real candles or flames, please.
• All pumpkins may be brought to the library on October 29 and 30th. Participation is optional. Please include your name and room number on the bottom of the pumpkin (writing on masking tape works well; we’ll have some available in the library). You may take your pumpkin home on Halloween. 

A recap:  Houses will be accepted in the library starting on Monday, October 22, though Monday, October 29.  Pumpkins accepted on October 29th and 30th.  We have many new students at Stone this year; if children are working in a group, please think to invite and include a new classmate if possible.  Can't wait to see the children's monsterpieces masterpieces!