Haunted House Craft

Build Your Own Haunted House!

I have been itching to do another magnetic build your own craft after the huge response to the Build Your Own Robot . This seemed like the perfect opportunity since the foam pieces can be used like blocks to build a custom haunted house in time for Halloween.  I made this  craft, my son did none of it. Actually I lie, he cheered me on “Nice window mama!” while eating his morning oatmeal. He did how ever play with it, a lot!  This would make a fun independent  Halloween craft for a school age child too.

1. Gather you materials. You will need some sparkly sticky back foam in black, red and silver, magnets ( mine are also stick back), scissors , a marker and a cookie sheet or magnetic fridge.  ** Word about magnets. Magnets are not toys and should not be played with my little people who could swallow them. If you have a little person who eats things ( or could) please be sure to use large flat magnetic tape not these round magnets. I would be devestated if anyone was ever hurt from one of my crafts, especially a child.
2. Draw the shapes you will be using for the house on the backing of the foam. On the black I made a large rectangle for the house, 2 smaller squares for the 2 wings of the house, a small rectangle for the tower and a triangle for the roof. I made 2  slanted red squares for windows , a door and 2 tiny squares for the tower windows. I drew two long strips of silver, a ghost and a moon. Do not worry about making mistakes drawing, no one will ever see it.
3. Cut the pieces out. And piece it together for a trial run.
4. Put together the main house piece.
5. Now the wings with windows.
6. The tower
7. The moon and ghost ( add eyes with left over black foam)
8. Add the magnets.
9. Play !!

Books!

Wake the Dead by Monica A Harris is a fantastically “pun”ny book!  Based around the old saying ” You are going to wake the dead” this book takes that saying and runs with it.  Henry is a loud kid and is warned over and over that his noise will wake the dead.  Not going to happen right? Wrong! In this book the dead do wake and explore every bad pun around the word “dead” you can think of.  The thing is , it’s done is a fun and effective way. My son is too young for this book but an older child  could go hog wild looking up the origins of all these sayings, thinking up their own and using the context to try to figure out any they are unfamiliar with.  The illustrations by Susan Estelle Kwas are surprisingly expressive considering most of the subjects are skelletons, I love the clothes the “dead” are wearing too! Very cute and useful book!

Ghosts in the House! by Kazuno Kohara is on my must buy list! A little girl moves into house and soon finds out it is haunted. Luckily she is a witch and knows just what to do. The ghosts in the story seem mischievous but never scary and even when she washes them in the washing machine, they are still smiling! My son loved this book, the text was the perfect length for a 3 year old, short but still descriptive.  I loved the simple  black and orange colors and had to look at the copywrite twice because I was certain this was written sometime in the 30s, nope 2008. The simplicity of the book and colors is balanced so well with the little details like the litt;e girl’s constant companion , a white cat that puts on a black costume when the little witch pops on her hat. This detail had my son in stitches, “Cats don’t wear clothes , silly cat!” .  Absolutely a perfect Halloween book for children not yet ready to be scared for fun!

The Costume Copycat by Maryann MacDonald is more about sibling rivalry than Halloween but brilliant none the less.  There are two sisters and each Halloween something happens to thrust the older sister into the spotlight leaving her little sister in her shadow feeling jealous and frustrated. Never is the older sister boastful or mean , it’s mostly just luck, or rather the younger sister’s bad luck that keeps her from shining. It’s hard to be the little sister ( trust me) especially when your older sibling is good at everything, and this book manages to get to the root of that emotion.  When the younger sister finally does feel like the spotlight is on her she remembers how she felt and shares her bounty with her sister.  Sweet book.