Category: Poetry for Children

A Spook Filled Halloween

A Special Treat for Halloween

Halloween, Halloween,
oh, the ghosts and gobblins I’ve seen;
howling and screaming in the night,
they give me quite a fright!
With eyes glowing in the dark,
their cries piercing and stark.

On this windy autumn night
my imagination takes flight…
Is that a sound of an owl that I hear
or a gobblin which is near?

Is that a haunted house
up the way
with a real ghost looking from
a window… I say!
Or is it a child dressed in white
preparing to go out on this night?

Spooks abound everywhere,
so, take care, take…care,
with their glowing eyes
and shrill cries…
Just beware!

Halloween, Halloween-
a night in costume
of frightening fun,
with identity in disguise…
full of shrieks and surprise!

A masquerade,
of costumes on parade,
with trick or treat,
a fun-filled escapade!

~ Lora Hollings

“There is a child in every one of us who is still a trick-or-treater looking for a brightly-lit front porch.” ~ Robert Brault

Haunting Treats for Halloween

Better gobble these cookies down quick. They’ve been known to disappear!

Gingerbread Ghosts

1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup margarine, softened
1/3 cup molasses
2 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch of salt

In a large bowl, blend together the sugar and butter. Add the molasses. Fold in the sifted flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a large baking sheet.

On a lightly floured board, roll out the dough until it is 1/8-inch thick. Cut out the cookie with a ghost-shaped cookie cutter and place on the baking sheet. Bake for 6 to 8 minutes, until lightly browned. Remove form the oven and let cool thoroughly on a wire rack before decorating with Frosting.

Frosting:
1 (16 ounce) box confectioners’ sugar, divided
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
3 to 4 tablespoons of soymilk
1 (8 ounce) package miniature chocolate chips

To half of the sugar add the vanilla extract, salt and 2 tablespoons of the milk. Mix well. Add the remaining sugar and mix again. Add as much of the remaining milk as you need to reach the desired consistency for spreading. Spread the Frosting on each cookie until it is totally white and looks like a ghost. For eyes, use two chocolate chips on each of the cookies.

Makes 2 dozen.

Healthy Kid Snacks For Halloween

Fruit Spiders Recipe

Creepy and crawly but deliciously cute, these healthy Halloween fruit spiders are so much fun, your kids will be begging for more. For complete instructions on making these Halloween critters go to http://eatingrichly.com/10/healthy-kid-snack-for-halloween-fruit-spiders-recipe/

A couple tips for making these successfully:

  1. Make sure to use dark black grapes rather than the purple grapes. Grapes that are a little more oval than round are easier to get all eight legs into.
  2. Serve your spiders within an hour of making them, any longer and the spaghetti will start to get soggy.

Fruity Frog


Ingredients

Green apple (such as a Granny Smith)
Tofutti
Chocolate chips
Green grapes

Instructions

  1. Cut the apple into quarters and remove the core. Cut a thin wedge from one quarter for a mouth. For the eyes, shape tofutti into two half-inch balls, and set them in place. Insert a chocolate chip, point-side in, into each tofutti ball.
  2. Use the grapes, cut in half, for the legs and feet. Slice four halves to create toes. Arrange the pieces as shown and serve on a paper lily pad.

Parents should cut and prepare the apple quarters and grape pieces used for frog’s body, hands, and feet. Children will have fun shaping the eyes, setting them in place, and arranging the pieces to make the frog. Children will also have lots of enjoyment drawing the lily pads on which the frogs are served on. You can also get creative here by having them make white, pink, or yellow flowers out of tissue paper to use as an additional decoration on these lily pads especially if they are serving them for a Halloween party.

A Halloween Craft for Family fun

pom pom pumpkin patch

These pom pom pumpkins are fun and easy to make, very festive, and make wonderful decorations for Fall and Halloween. They can also be used for place cards at Halloween parties.

For easy to follow step by step instructions go to this site.

Make An Adorable Paper Owl Tree

Whooo’s the cutest Halloween decoration around? These winged creatures! More sweet than scary, they make a great tabletop centerpiece when perched on a branch.

For making these fun and adorable owls, go to http://www.parents.com/fun/arts-crafts/kid/give-a-hoot-owl-craft/

Give a Hoot Owl Craft

Halloween Jumble (PDF download)

Have fun unscrambling the words in the Halloween Jumble! Most of these words can be found on this page. See below to download the printable PDF.

halloween-jumbleDownload

Table of contents

A Ladybug Poem For Halloween

Fred and Lydia Leave Miss Spider’s House

One Halloween night, Lydia, a ladybug, and her friend, Frederick the frog, were visiting with Miss Spider. It was getting late and it was time to go home. As they were leaving, Miss Spider said, “Wait, I have something for you,” and went to her cupboard that was full of magic potions that she had formulated over the years. Miss Spider loved to dabble in magic but she only used her magic for doing good such as helping her friends. She reached for a bottle and said, “This is precisely the one that will offer you protection as you walk home tonight. Many say the bog is haunted on Halloween night and I just want to make sure that you get home, safely.”

“For any spook that may appear, remember to say, ‘away with you now,’ as you sprinkle this magic dust.”

Fred and Lydia Leave Miss Spider’s House

They came from Miss Spider’s,
who had given them a brew
and some magical words too…

“Here, take this,
for it will protect you on your way
and will keep the evil spirits away.”

On this Halloween night,
Fred and Lydia
tiptoed past the graveyard
when they saw quite a sight.
Why, the little frog was so frightened
he turned white.

There was an eerie glow
in a cloud of fog
suspended above the bog.
They thought they heard some faint screams…

Fred had heard that the bog became
haunted on Halloween.

It was the ghost of Blackbeard the pirate
with skull and crossbone…
Fred said, “You are but only a ghostly apparition.”

The pirate laughed at the little frog
and said,
“I like your intuition!”

“I scared off all your neighbors
who look like you,”
and then he laughed with an echo
that sent chills down Fred’s back,
“a sight I truly savored…
it was fun to see them quaver.”

“You look as if you lost your pallor,”
then Fred tried to muster his valor,
“I’m not afraid of thee,”
but said in a voice that was shrill.

Despite his fear, he said,
“You are just a ghost, you see…”
“But what are you?
Just a frog!”

Then Fred replied,
“Ah, but you underestimate me!

I shall show you who’s afraid,
you are a bully and a braggart.
This cane and cape have magic!”

And then a shape he drew,
as Lydia then took her cue,
and into the air she flew!

She said a magical incantation
as she sprinkled the magic dust,
and then from the mist
came a monstrous incarnation…

A fire-breathing dragon
that even the fiercest pirate
would have feared,
who said,
“With my breath,
I shall sear your whiskers
if you don’t leave
and never come back here!”

Then the last thing they heard was,
“Shiver me timbers, I’m out of here!”

Yes, the pirate who was most feared
had been defeated,
and many times this story has been repeated,
as I say, with a sigh of relief,
by a ladybug and a frog
with the heart of a lion.

~ Lora Hollings

Insight from this poem

This poem unfolds like a miniature Halloween fairytale, blending whimsy, courage, and enchantment into a narrative that feels both playful and mythic. Through Fred the frog and Lydia the ladybug, the poem transforms familiar fears—darkness, fog, ghosts, and haunted places—into opportunities for bravery, imagination, and growth. What begins as nervous wonder becomes empowerment as magic, friendship, and cleverness triumph over intimidation and bluster. The pirate ghost represents fear itself: loud, theatrical, and boastful, yet ultimately hollow when confronted with courage and unity. The dragon, summoned through spell and belief, becomes a symbol of inner strength rather than destruction—an embodiment of confidence made visible. Beneath the fantasy, the poem celebrates the power of imagination to reshape reality and the importance of standing together in the face of fear. It’s a story of transformation, where small characters achieve great bravery, reminding readers that courage is not about size or strength, but about heart, loyalty, and the magic we carry within ourselves.

More poems