My Favourite Halloween Books to Support Early Language Skills

I don't know about you, but I love the time leading up to a holiday when I can bring out some of my seasonal kids' books. Halloween is a great time to do just this! I've done a round-up of my favourite reads this Halloween season with some strategies to support early language skills.

1. Ten Little Jack-O'-Lanterns by Amanda Sobotka

This is an adorable book that toddlers just love (including my daughter right now!) because it's quick and catchy, it has adorable 3D pumpkins that toddlers can feel and it's a pleasure to read thanks to its elements of rhyme and fill-in-the blank opportunities. You'll also love their sister book, 'Ten Little Ghosts' which follows a very similar pattern but with adorable ghosts along the way.

Early Language Strategies:

• Fill-In-The-Blank: After familiarizing yourselves with the book, have your child fill-in-the-blanks. This involves reading a page to them and pausing... to let them fill-in-the-blank with what might come next. E.g. "Ten little jack-o-lanters sitting in a line, along came a family, and then there were..." (Wait) "Nine!". The beautiful thing about this book is that the blanks always rhyme.

• Emphasize New Vocabulary: This book does a nice job introducing a variety of characters like a ghost, a cat and a witch. Make these words stand out while reading the book by adding emphasis to the words and pairing them with gestures and sounds.

• Supporting 1:1 Correspondence: This book is a great way to demonstrate that one word = one thing (in this case, each number corresponds to a jack-o-lantern). So it's not necessarily that toddlers will know that '8' = eight, but rather, the practice of counting the pumpkins helps them to develop an awareness that one spoken word corresponds to one 'object' which helps to lay the foundation for later literacy skills! You can help to support this skill by providing slowed down models of counting the pumpkins and using your finger to exaggerate each number. This is a skill that develops over time! So no need to rush it.

2. It's Pumpkin Day, Mouse! by Laura Numeroff and Felicia Bond

This book is short and sweet and part of the popular series of books featuring Mouse - the adorable main character (my personal favourite is 'If you Give a Mouse a Cookie'!). Toddlers will love how the seven pumpkins in the story are carved into different characters.

Early Language Strategies:

• Emphasize 'Feelings' Words: This story does a wonderful job of drawing readers' attention to various facial expressions on the pumpkins which naturally lends itself to a discussion of feelings (a foundational skill in social-emotional development!). Have your toddler tell you how the pumpkins are feeling (e.g. happy, sad) and extend learning even more by making a matching face!

• Emphasize Sound Effects: This book incorporates many fun sounds (e.g. Boo! Oops! Eek!) which toddlers love to imitate. Draw extra attention to these sounds by exaggerating them and adding gestures and see if your toddler will repeat after you (no pressure, just fun!).

3. The Very Hungry Caterpillar's Creepy-Crawly Halloween by Eric Carle

A Halloween adventure for the Very Hungry Caterpillar. Toddlers will love the suspense as they unveil lift-the-flap characters throughout the book. I love the inclusion of rhyme and the natural opportunities to have toddlers 'fill-in-the-blank'.

Early Language Strategies

• Fill-In-The-Blank: After familiarizing yourselves with the book, have your child fill-in-the-blanks. So after introducing each page, have your toddler lift the flap and see if they will vocalize what's underneath! The key here is waiting long enough to give your toddler the chance to take a turn.

• Emphasize Exclamatory Words and New Vocabulary: The 'lift-the-flap' style lends itself really nicely to exclamatory words like 'peek-a-boo!' or 'boo!' which can be modeled repeatedly as your toddler lifts the flaps. Other alternatives are saying 'Hello!' to each new creature or 'Bye-bye!' (and adding gestures).

What Halloween books have you been enjoying with your little one this Halloween? I'd love to hear! Comment below.

-- Meg