Secret Message Pumpkins

We read Twelve Haunted Rooms of Halloween, a cute Halloween story told in the style of "The Twelve Days of Christmas".  Believe it or not (which I hardly do), the kids like it because I sing it.  You can also search the illustrations for the 12 trick-or-treaters, 11 spiders spinning, etc., so it's also good counting practice.  Plus there's some bonus things to find throughout the book on the last page.  This is pretty tame for Halloween so it's good for preschoolers who like just a little scare factor.

A very similar (but creepier) book is The 13 Nights of Halloween, which I would say is more appropriate for older readers.  I also got this one from the library and unfortunately, I didn't preview it before I read it to my kids (shame on me).  Of course they fell in love and ask for it all the time.  They have been spontaneously bursting into the song, at least what they remember of it, so I have a two and four year old singing, "FIVE SING-ING SKUUUULLLLS!" at the top of their lungs, which is probably inappropriate.

After all this singing and counting and spotting, it seemed like a good idea to make some secret message pumpkins.  I cut some egg cartons so the two halves would go together.

The kids painted them orange.

While we waited for them to dry we wrote some messages to put inside.  You could also put some little treats in there, but we didn't have any.

I poked a hole through the top and added a green pipe cleaner for a stem.  We put our messages inside and taped them together with clear tape.  Next we added some faces with black marker.

It was a nice surprise for Dad when he got home.  A nicer surprise than all the singing, probably.