Home for Halloween

jack o lanternIt might be a smaller, simpler Halloween this year, but that doesn’t mean it has to be any less spirited (oooo bad pun alert!). We decided to do a round up of our Halloween posts for you to peruse, just in case you needed some projects, activities, costumes, or inspiration. But if you are just here to see Katie’s ingenious candy chute, scroll to the end of the post!


Above you see our cute toilet paper roll pumpkin project (bonus…the project is reversible, so no toilet paper wasted), but here’s a variation on it, using a balloon and an LED light. You might try this little lantern project, or go for this spooky votive castle

illuminated castle tissue box

For those of you looking for projects to do at home with limited materials, we recommend this printable skeleton marionette, or this simple but adorable paperclip skeleton:

el esqueleto

You can also try our hanging bat STEAM project, or this adorable ghost box (pair with a story time book and hide and seek game if you’d like)…

ghostbusters

Or make your very own shoulder raven! (and meet the REAL Poe raven here):

dr. dana as poe

Looking for a slightly more complicated project with a big WOW factor? Try this tabletop Pepper’s Ghost box, which can be constructed with items in your home, promise!

seeing spirits

For your costuming needs, we invite you to check out our thrift store costume challenge, where we basically pulled stuff from an average closet to create literary characters…

dolores-umbridge-costume

And here’s our Top 20 literary halloween costumes (the hobbits! the hobbits!), character makeup transformations, and some historic makeovers that will wow ’em at those Zoom Halloween gatherings!

model 5

For those of you wishing to ramp it up a notch, how about recreating our Dracula escape room? You’ll find a full breakdown here, including the puzzles and props we used…

full dracula room shot 3

For the younger kiddos we offer this box haunted house with ghost-hunting activity. No box? No problem! Drape a large table with a cloth and you’re set!

i-aint-afraid-of-no-ghost

If you’d like to keep it all virtual this year, try our online Sherlock Holmes escape room, take a look at some historic book curses, or enjoy our interview with this pumpkin carving master!

And finally…drum roll please…for Halloween 2020, check out Katie’s candy chute for the socially distanced trick or treaters! She constructed it with a 5″ HVAC tube, a pool noodle, and orange and black duct tape. The chute is about 5.5 feet long, which is perfect for distributing goodies to eager ghosts and goblins. I also want to confirm for the world: yes, Katie will be offering packets of Fun Dip this year. Oh YEAH!

IMG_0573

Pop’s Top 10: Artistic Letters

Yes, there is a National Letter Writing Day, and it is today! Katie and I decided to celebrate with a very broad, very liberal take on what it means to put letters into the world. There’s a bonus one at the end of the post. We couldn’t resist.


#10 ICE TOPOGRAPHY BY NICOLE DEXTRAS
From My Modern Met

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#9 BALTIMORE BUS STRUCTURE BY “MMMM…” COLLECTIVE
From Inhabitat

mmmm-bus-sculpture11


#8 ARMENIAN ALPHABET MONUMENT BY J. TOROSYAN
From Atlas Obscura

6f8803412b2496c8ce7598869a02165ef57324c3


#7 PERIODIC TABLE, UNIVERSITY OF MURCIA, SPAIN
From Chemistry World

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#6 FLOATING SENTENCES, TREVISO, ITALY
From Spudart

Guildor-Writing-On-Water


#5 TYPOGRAPHY COSTUME CONTEST
From Parsons School of Design

rbg6-konstfack3


#4 THE ALPHABET CHAIR BY SARAH PETERS
From Sarah Peters Sculpture

alphabet_chair_web


#3 HANDMADE STAPLES FONT BY RAFAEL FAGULHA
From Bēhance

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#2 “LOOK CLOSER” INSTALLATION BY CHARACTER
From boredpanda

San-Francisco-Design-Week9__880


#1 OPTICAL ILLUSION CALLIGRAPHY BY RYLSEE
From deMilked

letters-optical-illusions-calligraphy-rylsee-16


BONUS! AMERICA’S MOST FAMOUS LETTERS…
From Hollywood Sign


If you’re interested in doing a bit of letter art in your own home, library, or classroom, may we humbly suggest the letter art project we blogged about here? See also our topiary letters, letter fishing, magic floating letters, our favorite fuzzy crinkle letters, custom neon letters, or the result of inflating 130 giant alphabet balloons and stuffing them in the entryway of your library.

Blue Skies Ahead

blue skies ahead

We’re zooming into the wild blue yonder with this amazing aviator hat AND a pair of custom airplane wings and propeller belt. The sky is the limit!

plane costumeWe read Pilot Pups, written by Michelle Meadows, and illustrated by Dan Andreasen (Simon & Schuster, 2008). Join a pair of enthusiastic stuffed dogs as they fly through the house in a toy plane. Dodging mountaintops (Dad’s head), encountering fog (tea kettle), and careening past the creek (kitchen sink), and returning to the bed before anyone notices their daring adventures.

You’ll need:

It took a little tweaking, but I finally came up with a single piece aviator hat template that works. Here’s what the template looks like with its various dimensions:

aviator hat template with measurments

And here’s an unmarked shot of it, so you can clearly see its shape:

aviator hat template blank step 1First, fold the rounded part of the template upwards and inwards, so it tucks under the back of the template. Later, this will be the bill of your aviator hat.

aviator hat template step 2Hold the template to your forehead and curve the long ends around your head. Secure the ends together with staples. This is the headband of your hat (and, if the template band doesn’t go all the way around your head, just add a little extender piece in the back).

aviator hat template step 3Next, fold the right and left flaps over the top of your head. Secure them together with staples. Note: you want the flaps to form a bit of a “dome” over your head, not fit super tight on top of your skull.

aviator hat template step 4Fold the the center flap down over the top of your head, gently tucking it into the back of the hat brim. Trim off any excess flap sticking out from under the brim.

aviator hat template step 5

Turn the hat over and squish and round the edges of the center flap to make the hat look more rounded. Decorate the goggles (yay steampunk story time!) and buckles from the template, then attach them to the hat like so:

aviator hat template step 6That’s your hat, now for the rest of the costume! The wings are super simple. We cut pairs of 9.5″ x 16″ wings from white poster board, which the kids decorated with markers, color masking tape, and star stickers. Add poster board wrist and shoulder loops to the undersides of the wings. You can see the placement of the loops in the photo below (most kids chose to grasp the wrist loops in their fists while “flying”):

wing loopsThe propeller belt is a strip of poster board with holes punched in each end. Wrap the belt around your waist and secure it in place with a snippet of ribbon (decorate with markers and color masking tape of you like to) threaded through the belt holes. You can simply attach a poster board propeller to the front, or you can make it spin by using a brass fastener.

You’re ready to soar!