Halloween Popcorn Party

As a little girl, I loved this Halloween book called Popcorn by Frank Asch. When I went to look for it as a teacher, I couldn't even find it at the library because it had been out of print for a long time. I found out recently that it has been published again and bought my own copy- mostly out of nostalgia.

I'll be honest, after reading the story again with my adult eyes, I can't say it impressed me as much as it did when I was a little girl. But I do still think it's fun to imagine popping so much popcorn that it fills up a whole house. And the story can lend itself to some great discussions about choices, consequences, and problem solving- if you are looking for a way to make the read more meaningful. Sometimes though, I think it's also great to read silly stories that are just for fun. After we read it, we made popcorn for our own Halloween snack.

Popping popcorn is one of my favorite ways to introduce the five senses, and reading this book gave us a good excuse to do just that. So we focused on using our five senses as the popcorn cooked in the air popper. First we could hear it and smell it, and then we could see it popping out of the top. After it was finished, we touched it and tasted it as we ate it.

It was our own little Halloween popcorn party...but luckily we made just the right amount so that we didn't have to eat a whole house-full like in the book. :)