It’s just pretend


Halloween is the best time to talk about real vs pretend. Halloween has its origins but for small children it’s about dressing up and pretending to be something you are not. There are images during this holiday season that might be confusing and scary for our littles. That’s why around this time we always find ourselves provoking similar conversations.  We asked the children  what do you think is spooky? The children had a very long list from monsters to ghosts, zombies to goblins. They pretty much covered them all. It’s hard to protect our children from these images during this season they are literally everywhere. So it’s important to reassure them that all this spooky stuff is pretend...and as kids know best, pretending is fun! 



We asked the children to draw the things they find scary and it was interesting to watch and listen to them as their artwork developed into stories and expressed some real fears. These are a few of some of the things our friends said, “I drew the dark. I’m afraid of the dark and what’s inside the dark. This is a ghost in the dark.” 

“ I’m drawing a family of scary bugs. There are so many of them. Here’s a butterfly with no eyes and this is a door that takes away kids toys when they are sleeping at night.” 

“ This is a Lightning Monster! It has long feet and it’s really really tall. When it gets angry, it blasts out lightning from its tummy. It eats the lightning from the clouds to get more power.” 




This opportunity created an outlet to express themselves and  might  better help them understand that the monsters  they are drawing are just like the pretend monster images that they see parading around this time of year. They are just images that people people made up in their head.




The mask project continues along this same line of thinking...but takes it one step further , giving them a chance to see how a monster on paper can turn into a monster that is walking around. Indeed it is just a costume. 

They  designed their scary mask first on paper to better be able to conceptualize the final mask they would go on to create.






The children were asked to look at their first mask and to figure out using previously painted cardboard, scissors and glue, how to recreate their design for their final mask. The process was pretty amazing to watch. Some of the masks looked very similar while other masks took on a different look. They were encouraged to use the materials as they wanted and the results are stunning.  Please take time to look at our beautiful mask wall hanging in our red room. 

















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