Parade of Literacy - Book Themed Costumes!

I love how creative my students and their parents get every year for the Parade of Literacy!  Here are my top picks for this year!

1. Amelia Bedelia

2. Rainbow Fish

3. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

(Notice the "gum" [gel] in his hair!)

4. Charlie Brown

5. Cindy Lou Who

And of course, our teachers, who go all out every year!

The Adventures of Tintin and Captain Haddock DIY Costumes

It's the most wonderful time of the year... no, I don't mean Christmas.  PARADE OF LITERACY!!! 

It's my favorite day of the year, and pretty much my favorite part thing about being a teacher.  Two years ago I went as Ms. Frizzle, and last year Aidan and I went as Max and a Wild Thing from Where the Wild Things Are.

I totally plan a year in advance.  I know I'm crazy, but at least I channel it into something productive - costume making!

This year, I decided to dress Aidan and I up as Tintin and Captain Haddock.  In case you don't know who they are, don't worry, you're not alone.  If you DO know who they are, I am so happy we are friends!  The Adventures of Tintin is a comic series, created by Belgian cartoonist Herge.  Since Dan and I met, and went to college in Belgium, plus my mom is/was a huge fan, so growing up, liking the comic series wasn't really optional, it felt like a perfect fit!  Plus, while Aidan isn't a ginger, he definitely has some red tones to his hair.  Let the planning begin!

Tintin's costume:

(Especially for Aidan's part, I wanted to get things that he could wear anyway.)

- Khaki pants (found mine at Target)

- White collared shirt (found mine at Old Navy)

- Light blue long sleeved shirt (found mine on Burt's Bee's website)

- Dark brown/black shoes

- Alfalfa-esque hair spike

Optional:

- Stuffed Snowy dog toy

- Light colored trench coat

- Leather backpack/satchel

Captain Haddock's costume:

- Navy pants (mine were ones I already had)

- Royal blue shirt (found at Goodwill)

- Navy blazer (found at Goodwill)

- Captain's hat (found it online)

- Black booties

- Fuzzy craft fabric (found at Michael's)

- Black felt

- Hot glue gun

- Ribbon

- Anchor stencil

Tintin's costume was pretty straight forward.  Captain Haddock's took a little work. 

1. I cut out a beard from the fuzzy fabric, and hot glued ribbon to the corners.  I also cut a long strip of it, and hot glued in to the inside of the captain's hat.

2. I printed out a large picture of an anchor I liked (in the comics, Captain's Haddock's anchor is pretty small, but I wanted it to be noticeable, so I took some artistic liberties.  I cut out the anchor, pinned it to the felt, and cut the anchor out of felt.  I then hot glued it to the front of the blue (Goodwill-find) shirt.

Ta-da!

Then, we took Aidan outside, and got a few pictures.  Because, seriously - he looked way too stinking' adorable not to have photographic evidence.  Besides, he'll need proof when he needs to see a shrink once he's an adult.

 

And... just for reference sake, here are the original Tintin and Captain Haddock:

Halloween Fishers Of Men Trunk Or Treat Idea

One of the things about growing up overseas, is that we never celebrated Halloween.  Even if we did live in the States, we probably would've been the family hosting the harvest party at church.

So, I get really excited about the fun, costume and candy aspect of Halloween.  Of course, I don't like the evil and scary aspect of Halloween (the scariest movie I've ever seen is Jumanji).  I do, however LOVE costumes, as I've mentioned in the past, and candy - well, I love candy too.  So, yeah, this is right up my alley.

Our church started an annual "Light Up The Night" Trunk or Treat event last year.  We love it!  Last year we did a David and Goliath trunk.  We painted a Goliath face on foam board, cut two holes in it, and had a bean bag toss game for the kids.

This year, I really wanted to make a sushi costume for Aidan.  I had seen it on pinterest, and thought it was adorable!  So, we went with Matthew 4:19.  "Jesus said to them: Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."

Here's what I used for Aidan's sushi costume:

- white onesie

- felt (peach, salmon, pink, green, black)

- thread

- scissors

- fabric glue

Directions:

1. Draw out a basic pattern on paper.

2. Cut them out, pin them on felt, and cut them out as well.

3. Glue pieces on top of each other.

4. Finally, glue and/or sew pieces together.

Voila!

After that, I took to the actual trunk.

You'll need:

- Large piece of cardboard, cover with blue bulletin board paper

- Blue plastic table cloths

- Different shades of blue balloons

- Chinese lanterns

- Googley eyes

- Colored paper

- Duct tape

- Rod

- Yarn

- Large magnet

- Clasp-type paper clip

- Swedish Fish Halloween candy

- Hot glue gun

Chinese lantern fish:

1. Cut out fins and such, out of colored paper, and glue them to the Chinese lanterns, to make fish or other sea creatures. 

2. Then, using hot glue, glue them on, along with the google eyes.

How to put it together:

1. First, we took the lid off the part of the trunk that has our spare tire.  And then, the spare tire.  We then laid the blue plastic tablecloths down, and the large piece of cardboard in the back.

2. Using the duct tape, attach balloons to the piece of cardboard.

3. Turn rod and yarn into a fishing pole.  Add magnet to the end.

4. Hang fish, and other sea animals from trunk.

5. Put large clasp-type paper clips on the bags of Swedish Fish.

6. As the kids walk up, let them use the magnet to "fish" for Swedish Fish!  Just make sure you remember to take the paper clip off before handing it to the kid.  Can you imagine how much a mom might freak out, to find a paper clip in their kid's Halloween bag!?  Yikes!

7. Also, Dan and I bought Sriracha shirts from Target.  Have I mentioned yet?  I love Target!

Our Sushi Baby

"Fishers Of Men"

I'm already thinking of ideas for next year... it may involve spandex.  Or lava lamps...  Shag carpet?  Or capes...?  

So, have you or your family ever done anything for a trunk or treat?  What ideas do you have?  What are your thoughts on celebrating Halloween?

I'm so glad you stopped by!  Please leave me your thoughts!

I'll Eat You Up, I Love You So - Where The Wild Things Are Costume

You may remember from last year, that the Literacy Parade is my FAVORITE day of the year!  It's a Halloween- alternative costume parade my school puts on.  The idea is, that you choose a character from a book, dress up as that character, bring in the book, with your book project, and parade around school.  I look forward to it all year long, and have costumes picked out years in advance.  Obsessive?  Perhaps.  But it combines everything I love most - books and costumes.

My first year, I dressed up as Amelia Bedelia, last year I dressed up as Ms. Frizzle, and this year... baby boo and I dressed up as Max and a Wild Thing from Where The Wild Things Are.

I have always loved the book, Where The Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak.  The idea of a rowdy little boy, who comes up with a whole imaginary world - and then realizes his misses his mama - is a really sweet notion to me.  Growing up with brothers, I can totally get that!
To top all, this year is the year's 50th anniversary, and Aidan's grandma and grandpa got him the book... so it just seemed very fitting.

Firstly, of course I had to find Aidan his costume.  This was much easier said than done.  You may not believe it, but white footie pajamas with a hood are hard to come by.  So, I gave in, and bought his costume at Party City.  I can tell you though, it is well made, comfortable, and REALLY soft.  Aidan seemed to like it!

Now for my costume.  I didn't take pictures of the process, because most of it was just finding the right pieces.

Here's what I got:

Patterned leggings (I found mine at Target)

Orange and brown sweater/shirt (I found mine at Goodwill)

Faux fur collar (which I pinned together to make a hat)

Horns (Toilet paper rolls I cut a slit into, and rolled to make cones)

Wild Thing Feet

For the Wild Thing feet I took a sheet of gray felt, cut it in half.  Then, I took white felt, and cut about inch long triangles.  I sewed the triangles to the piece of felt.  Then, I sewed elastic to the back and bottom of the large pieces of felt.  Tada!  Wild Thing feet!  (This would also work for dinosaur, monster, or animal feet too.)

I assembled them all, and the end result was:

We all know it's not a party unless the snacks are AMAZING, so I knew I had to come up with something fun.  I reused my acorn idea from two years ago.  I also found Alpha-bit cereal (Literacy Parade - get it?), and found a really cute idea involving clementines and celery.  You peel the clementines, and stick 3/4 inch piece of celery in it, and low and behold, it looks like a pumpkin!

My kiddos had so much fun during our Literacy Parade!  They had such cute costume ideas!  I had a Cat in The Hat, a Thing 2, two firemen, a Sister Bear (from the Berenstain Bears), two Olivia-s, David from the Bible, the pig from If You Give A Pig A Party, Woody, a Doc McStuffins, Fancy Nancy, and more!  

I gave my best rendition of Where The Wild Things Are, with my special helper, and the kids loved it!

It was a wonderful day!  I love dressing up, and if it promotes literacy, it's just that much better!  Aidan was such a great sport about it too, and stole the show!

Stay tuned for Aidan's costume for our church's Light Up The Night event next week!