Spooky Poems Aloud (by Joseph Coelho’s and Daniel Gray-Barnett) is the perfect choice of book if you would like to enjoy some scary sensory fun at Halloween. It works for a wide age range – simple adjust the fright-factor to suit your learners. Some teenage learners will enjoy the scariest of the poems – and for younger ones poems such as Skeleton in the Basement and The Pranking Ghost can be shared in a funny rather than a spooky way.
Halloween is a great time to try out sensory language…spooky whispers, scary pauses, ghostly voices. Children with severe or profound additional needs often enjoy this kind of heightened language.
On a Cold, Whispering Night:
Use your scariest Halloween whisper for this poem and if possible (and if your learners would enjoy this) tell it in dim or dark light and use a torch. You could ask one of your learners or a colleague to act out the mystery figure. They could wrap themselves in a large piece of white fabric. Have fun adding some other effects:
- use some fairy lights for the stars
- add in some stretchy spiders or bats – or some bats that fly!
- gently rumble a thunder-maker for background atmosphere
- blow softly into a whistle to make a whistling wind
- you may have a sand timer (or similar) already in your classroom that you can use for the hourglass.
At the end you could dramatically switch off the torch and fairy lights!
The Skeleton in the Basement:
Try a football rattle for the rattling bones of the skeleton. Build up slowly – start by just turning the rattle a tiny bit with your other hand. Increase the rattling with each verse and then by the end of the poem (if your learners are tolerant of loud noises) you can hold it above your head and whizz it round and round!
The Pranking Ghost:
Have fun with all your Halloween sound effects for this poem. Maybe you could download some sounds on to switch recorders so that your learners can join in! Creaking doors, ringing phones, footsteps, barking dogs and yowling cats and lots of ghostly wails would all be good to download.
The verses of this poem do not necessarily have to be read in the right order and each verse can be repeated several times. If your learners press their switches at random times you could use their switch noises to prompt you to read the ‘matching’ verse – in this way you can give the young people control of the poem session.
Other good actions and props for this poem would be:
- stomping your feet up and down – ‘up and down the stairs’
- hiss like a cat
- green slime for the ‘goo’
- a fart sound effect or whoopee cushion!
- the shaking element that you find in a baby toy that shakes – you could cut this out of an old toy and put it in a small sock – this would work well for the buzzing flies.
Gather together any Halloween dress-up cloaks or large pieces of fabric so that everyone can dress up as ghouls, wraiths etc. in the last verse. Encourage everyone to make their own Halloween noises!
If you are sharing scary poems or stories with children with additional needs who you do not know very well always check the correct scare-level first with a family member or teacher!
Remember – not all of my props recommendations are toys! The props I suggest should not be used by children unsupervised.
These are just a few ideas – there is lots to inspire you in this book. We would love to hear your ideas for these spooky poems as well – send us an email!
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