The Colored Ghosts

My aunts used to tell me this little story when I was young, about ghosts that changed colors when they eat something colorful. They had little puppets or something to go along with the story, and I just loved it. Honestly, I had forgotten about it for years as a teacher, and for some reason it came to my mind this year when I started planning some ghost activities. So I decided to bring it back and try it out with my preschool kids. I may not have remembered it exactly right, but it was fun to share something that I had loved as a kid. Maybe you remember hearing this story, too?

I made little stick puppets for the ghosts, and selected 6 food items from my play food collection that coordinated with the story. During the story, each student held one piece of food and held their matching colored ghost after they changed.

Anyway, the basic story goes like this....

Once there was a family of ghosts that lived in a house full of human food. Their Mama taught them that because they were ghosts, they could only eat food that was the color white, otherwise they would get sick. So one day they ran out of white food, and the Mama ghost was getting ready to go to the store to get them some more white food. She warned them not to eat any of the other human food while she was gone, and, like all good ghost children, they promised they wouldn't. But as time went by they grew more and more hungry, and also a little curious, and one by one forgot their promise.

The first ghost saw a basket of yellow food on the counter (and at this point, one of the students holding a piece of food shouted out- bananas! That's my ghost!) and said "Boo!" to scare the peel off the banana, and ate it all up. Then her tummy started to hurt and something strange started to happen...she turned yellow! (Then I hand the yellow ghost to the student holding the banana)

All the ghosts move through different foods, trying just a bite here or eating it all up, until they are all different colors. One even eats some chocolate chips, and becomes brown and spotted. When the Mama Ghost gets home, they all complain of their new colors and sick tummies, and she gives them some white food to change them all back. (Here, I had the kids help me brainstorm some food they could eat- milk, cauliflower, ice cream, etc.)

After the story, I set the ghosts out at a table with a tray of play food as an invitation for story retelling and color sorting.

We also explored ghosts and colors in this sensory bin full of packing peanuts and colored water. Not only did the ghosts change color in this bin, but they started to shrivel up and disintegrate from the liquid, which led to some interesting science inquiry.

The ghosts and some matching foods have been available since then, and it's been fun to watch the students continue to interact with the story.