Monsters in all shapes and sizes are one of those things that pop up around Halloween. Some monsters are creepy. The stuff of childhood (or even adult) nightmares. There are also, however, plenty of adorable, silly and playful monsters that are both kid appropriate and the perfect focus for a fun Halloween story time.
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Monster Story Time
Monster story time is below with picture books to read aloud, a song to sing and dance to and a cooperative art activity for little ones that practices counting skills and encourages silly creativity.
Read Aloud Books about Monsters
Go Away, Big Green Monster!
by Ed Emberley
This is a classic Halloween read aloud and for good reason; it is fantastic fun. When I was reading aloud to toddlers and preschoolers I had a felt face to go with this story so they could help me add and subtract the pieces. Either way, this is a fun, not scary monster story.
Leonardo the Terrible Monster
by Mo Willems
Leonardo is a terrible monster. He is just not scary. In fact, he’s kind of cute. One day he comes up with the brilliant idea to scary the most nervous little boy in the world. Enter Sam. Mo Willems is a master of read alouds. The emotions of the characters that burst from the pages with his words and illustrations just beg for a dramatic reading. The antics of Leonardo and Sam are no different.
Also Read: Best Not-So-Scary Monster Books for Preschoolers
Songs and Rhymes about Monsters
by Laurie Berkner
illustrated by Ben Clanton
I love collaborative art activities for small groups of kids in classrooms, libraries and at home. They integrate social skills and communication skills naturally into a larger than life art project. This collaborative project is monster themed for Halloween or any time of year.
Materials:
- Large Oval Drawn on Paper (or several ovals if you’re working with more than 3 kids)
- Printable Body Parts List (you can type this, but I just wrote them out on a piece of paper: Eyes, Ears, Legs, Arms, Noses)
- Dice (any size works but bigger ones are better for little kids)
- Markers
Activity:
Show your group the big oval on your paper or board. For a larger group, have 2-3 monsters ready to go so everyone gets a turn.
Explain that you have read about lots of different kinds of monsters today. Show them a couple illustrations to demonstrate the differences.
Tell them you are going to all use your imaginations, counting skills, and creativity to work together to design your own monster(s).
Read from the ingredients list the first item.
Have a volunteer roll the dice and count to see how many of that body part you will be adding. Working on counting numbers with one to one correspondence.
Continue on down through the list of items. As they work, encourage them to be creative and silly. For example, “Four eyes. That’s a silly idea. I wonder where some extra eyes would be useful.” or “Jack put a nose on an arm. I love that silly idea.”
End.
When you’re done with your list, if the kids are excited, you can invite them to all color together to add whatever else they want to their monsters. You can even pull out some glue and collage materials to add textures to your monsters. I like to put on some playful music in the background while they work.
