My Favorite October Book

My favorite Halloween book has a back story. My first year of teaching kindergarten I had a parent ask if she could come read to the class around Halloween. I agreed and she showed up in full Bride of Frankenstein costume - not scary, but enthralling to my kinders. She read this book and the students were in love! It has repetitious text, and it's spooky but not too spooky. It's also brimming with positional words! The next year I had the younger brother in my classroom so the mama came again to read to us and again all my kinders loved it! This year I have older brother again (he went to Transitional First grade in between K and 1st and is now is 1st grade) so she asked if she could come read it again to us. Even though a few of the kids have heard it already, I know that they are all going to love it! There's something about having an adult in costume read to the class that makes any book 10 times more special! What book am I talking about? The Berenstain Bears: The Spooky Old Tree!

It is such a fun book that I thought I had to share it with you all. I am planning some activities based on it, to capitalize on the excitement after the mama comes to read.
Here is the Berenstain Bears Official Website. It has some fun online activities that I may use on my Smartboard, like Sister Bear's mystery message! Random House also has a Berenstain Bears website with some neat activities - including some counting/simple addition worksheets and a fill-in-the blank Mystery Story that would be great for a class book! I love the apple picking coloring page - what a great picture to use as a story prompt - what's going to happen next? What will Sister Bear say? How will Papa Bear react? Here's a youtube video complete with spooky music:

Since there are so many bats and spider webs in the illustrations, any craft with those elements could be tied into this story. Here are some of my favorites, click the pictures to go to the websites for instructions:

Ok, have to get off now, I have a letter to write regarding a student's adhd meds, lesson plans to write and some fun Halloween activities to create! Check back this week to see the freebies I post!
I am linking this up with Mrs. Parker as my favorite October book! Click the picture to go to her blog to see the other fabulous book ideas!