Having your child make a photo book for Halloween will help them in many ways:
-Cognitively recall past and future events
-Improve temporal skills (days of the week, last weekend, yesterday, tomorrow, etc.)
-Engage in conversations about their Halloween experiences. Their peers at school will be talking about Halloween. This activity will help your child be included socially and will help them take part in those conversations. Also, many people will be asking your child, “What did you do for Halloween?” or “How was your Halloween?” A Halloween book will help them respond and engage in conversations just like their peers.
-Increase Theory of Mind skills and perspective taking. When you are making the book with your child, you can talk about what your child did and what they liked, but also focus on who they were with, what those people did and what those people liked, their favorite parts, their costumes and more.
-Know what to expect for next year’s Halloween
-A Halloween book is a great opportunity to work on new vocabulary, grammar and sentence structure.
-They will also be able to work on fine motor skills such as cutting, taping, gluing and writing.
-Making the book with a sibling, friend or parent is a great social activity. You can work on turn taking, conversation, asking questions, describing and more.
How do you make a Halloween book?
Take photos of your child engaging in Halloween activities (shopping for Halloween supplies, making Halloween treats, trick-or-treating, school party, carnival, etc.). Print these photos out. Make fun template pages. Here is an example of what we have used:
We used Microsoft Word and found free printable Halloween stationary. There are also many websites where you can find free stationary or you can use plain paper:
http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/halloween_stationery.htm
http://www.busybeekidsprintables.com/Halloween-Stationery.html
http://www.mintprintables.com/stationery/halloween/
Then assemble the book with your child. Here is an example of a Fourth of July Book that one of our kiddos made. This little girl is still learning to write so her dad helped her with that part:
You can make the book in one sitting or you can work on a page or two a day. Allow your child to look at their Halloween book or pages a few times each day (before school, after school, before bed, etc.). With frequent time to look at the book, this will help them engage in conversations.
Have fun and Happy Halloween!
~KidSpeak, LLC
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