P is for PARADE!
Hooray, it's time for our 10th Annual
Parade of Books!
This year's parade, in which children dress up as their favorite book characters and carry the book to match or create wearable book covers,
will be held on Wednesday, May 22th at 2:00 p.m. and grades K through 3 will be participating. All students in these grade levels are expected to participate.
Families are welcome to watch the parade outside on the Stone playground at 2:00 (in case of rain, the parade will be held inside the school). Bring little brothers and sisters to cheer, and don't forget the camera! This is a great opportunity for us to celebrate Stone as a community of readers, and to create home-school connections.
We are asking that costumes should be book related, and that each student carry a book related to the costume they are wearing. Chefs can carry cookbooks, Cleopatra can carry a book about ancient Egypt, baseball players can carry sport biographies, for just a few examples.
So!
Checklist for K-3 parents on May 22:
* Please send your child to school with the book-related costume (or poster) in a bag, to be changed into (or carried) in the afternoon. Please keep it simple. Mark all belongings with name and room number.
* Please send your child to school with the corresponding book to carry in the parade.
* Cheer and take pictures on the school playground at 2:00, if you are available. If you are not available, we love you just the same, and we'll take pictures.
A gentle reminder: This should not be a recycling of scary or licensed character-inspired Halloween costumes. Children should not wear masks (which also present a safety challenge when small children march), any horror themes involving blood (zombies or vampires), or television characters/video game characters that were cartoons before they were books. The rule is that the character should have been in a book before a television show or movie! As far as books to carry, there are some resources available in our school library and your child's classroom library, but this is also a perfect opportunity to visit the
Chicago Public Library.
Additionally, we ask that parents please
do not follow children back into the school after the parade, as this presents security issues. Thank you for your support and cooperation! Can't wait to see what our creative community comes up with this year...every year has been so full of amazing surprises!
Here are some ideas to get your creative juices flowing, using household items to make a fun costume in less than an hour!• Cut "ears" out of construction paper, leaving a little extra length at the bottom of each ear. Fold a flap at the bottom of the ear and tape to a plastic headband. Great for bears, pigs, cats, etc.!
• Examples of easy costumes:
mouse ears + pink tutu + pink ribbon + eyebrow pencil whiskers =
Angelina Ballerina by Helen Craig
mouse ears + blue overalls + a bag of chocolate chip cookies + eyebrow pencil whiskers =
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff
Straw hat + black ribbon + red coat + white socks + black shoes =
Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans
Floppy hat decorated with tissue paper flowers + apron =
Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish
• Paper bags can be magical! Design a gown from one like
The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch, or cut out a cowboy vest and don a cowboy hat like
Pecos Bill by Steven Kellogg!
• You can make googly eyes for
Frog and Toad by Arnold Lobel or
Lyle, Lyle Crocodile by Bernard Waber from egg cartons! Attach two egg receptacles to a half-paper plate colored green, to be tied around the forehead! Wear a green turtleneck, pants or tights! Add green felt spikes for dinosaur or dragon characters!
• Fairy tale costumes are fun and easy! Construction paper crowns sparkling with glitter or aluminum foil for kings and queens...scarf capes for princes...construction paper rolled into cone-shapes with a scarf at the top for princesses, or decorated with silver moons for wizards...aluminum foil stars on foil-covered sticks for wands...wicked witches are storybook characters that can be recycled for Halloween!
• Beauty secret!
Pippi Longstocking's braids stick out with the help of pipe cleaners!
• An alternative to a disguise is to make a placard! Take two pieces of poster board, punch two holes at the top of each piece and tie yard to attach the boards, leaving about 3-5 inches of "give" on the yarn, so your child can slip the boards over the head, carrying the boards on the shoulders. Your child can then decorate the poster board like a favorite book! A walking advertisement!
• There are so many classic characters from classic books:
Alice in Wonderland,
The Wizard of Oz,
King Arthur,
Oliver Twist,
Curious George...which was your favorite as a child? Now is a great time to read it aloud!
• And don't forget, readers of non-fiction are real readers, too! How about an alien costume if your child loves a book about outer space? A chef carrying a cookbook? A famous person carrying his or her biography? A favorite animal carrying a book featuring that animal?
For some more ambitious costume inspiration, click
here!
The goal is not expense, but I-M-A-G-I-N-A-T-I-O-N!
Ms. Demonte sporting stripes a la A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon.
Here are some examples of costumes from years past!
Can't wait to see our creativity and love of reading SHINE!
