Nibbles Sees a Ghost!
By Salley Cat We had a bit of a mystery on our hands today, readers. Nibbles came running into school absolutely freaking out. When she was walking to school this morning she swore she saw a ghost in the trees near her house. She was shaking like a leaf. She said she couldn’t go home after school – she just couldn’t. I knew that there had to be some logical explanation. It is close to Halloween after all so I thought maybe what she thought was a real ghost was actually just somebody’s decorations. But Nibbles insisted that the ghost was flying through the trees! Freaky, huh? After school she was so scared about walking home I said I’d walk with her and we’d figure this thing out. Our walk home was completely uneventful. That is, until we got to the trees by her house. She was still really shaky when all of a sudden, she screamed and pointed. I turned to look at what she was pointing at and there it was. I saw it too! Through the trees a wispy white figure swayed back and forth. Nibbles didn’t have to tell me twice – we were … Read more
Purr-cilla’s Petition
Ms. Cowoline has cancelled our annual Halloween Parade around the school. If you want our Halloween Parade to go on this year, please support our effort to convince Ms. Cowoline to change her mind by signing below. When we have collected names we will pass this petition onto Ms. Cowoline to show her just how important the parade is to us
Easy Caramel Popcorn
What’s Halloween without caramel corn? What you need: - ½ cup butter - ½ cup packed brown sugar - 12 large marshmallows - 1 packet plain microwave popcorn - An adult assistant to help you with this recipe What you do: 1. Pop popcorn according to package directions. Leave in bag. 2. In a small saucepan combine butter and sugar. 3. Have your assistant heat butter and sugar over medium heat until butter is melted. Mix well. 4. Have your assistant add marshmallows to pan and stir constantly until they are melted. 5. Remove from heat. 6. Open popcorn package and pour marshmallow mixture over popcorn. Fold bag shut and, holding tightly closed, shake well to coat popcorn. When your popcorn has cooled you can mold it into popcorn balls, or just pour it into a bowl and dig in!
Paper Bag Scarecrows
These cute fall creatures are so easy to make. What you need: - Paper bags - Newpaper - Markers - Egg carton - Raffia or ribbon - Twist tie - Glue - Scissors - Buttons - An adult assistant to help you with this craft What you do: 1. Draw a scarecrow face on the bottom 1/3 of your paper bag. Just add dots for the eyes as you will be adding button eyes at the end. 2. Stuff crinkled up newspaper into the bottom 1/3 of your paper bag. 3. Squeeze your bag shut just about the newspaper and close with twist tie. 4. Using scissors, cut the top of the paper bag in strips down to just above the twist tie. Fan out strips to make scarecrow’s hair. 5. Cut up egg carton into individual cups to from ‘hats’. 6. Wrap a piece of ribbon or raffia around the base of a hat and glue hat on top of your scarecrow’s head. 7. Glue button eyes onto your scarecrow’s face. You can hang up these funny scarecrow heads or sit them on a windowsill to watch over the trick or treating fun!
Fall Suncatcher
What you need: - A selection of fall leaves - Two pieces of waxed paper the size of your window - Iron - Ironing board - 2 pieces of brown craft paper the same size as your waxed paper - An adult assistant to help you with the craft What you do: 1. Put one sheet of craft paper on your ironing board. 2. Place one sheet of waxed paper, waxed side up, on top of the craft paper. 3. Arrange your leaves in an attractive pattern. 4. Place the second sheet of waxed paper on top, waxed side down, lining up the edges. 5. Place the second piece of craft paper on top. 6. Have your adult assistant iron the craft paper on a low setting, being sure to heat right to the edge. When you are done, the two pieces of wax paper should stick together, suspending the leaves in place. Tape your artwork onto your window and you can enjoy the beauty of fall all year ‘round.
School Council Minutes – October 25
Recorded by: Stoogles, Vice President Re: Emergency Meeting of School Council continued Called by: Salley Cat, President In attendance: Salley Cat (see above), Stoogles (see above) and Purr-cilla, Treasurer This meeting has been called by Salley Cat to share our ideas to convince Ms. Cowoline that the Annual Halloween Parade through the school should go on this year, even though we lost a lot of learning time putting on the play last month. Salley’s idea: We should secretly pass the word around the school that everyone should just show up on Halloween in their costume and Ms. Cowoline will see that she has to let us hold the parade. PROS: Everyone would get to wear their costumes. CONS: We probably wouldn’t get to have the parade because Ms. Cowoline would be pretty mad and we would get in a lot of trouble for disobeying her. Stoogles’ idea: We should tell Ms. Cowoline that I suffer from a rare condition that requires me to dress up once a year and that I would feel more comfortable if all my friends supported me by dressing up as well. PROS: Well, despite the fact that I think this is an awesome idea, apparently … Read more
School Council Minutes – October 24
Recorded by: Stoogles, Vice President Re: Emergency Meeting of School Council Called by: Salley Cat, President In attendance: Salley Cat (see above), Stoogles, Vice-president and Purr-cilla, Treasurer Salley Cat called an emergency meeting to announce to the members of the school council some very disturbing news. Today Salley went to Ms. Cowoline’s office to ask her about the planned route for this year’s Halloween parade in which all the students dress in their costumes and march through the school. Ms. Cowoline told Salley that she had decided that because we spend so much time last month working on the play we’re behind in our studies, so Ms. Cowoline has decided to do away with the parade this year. Apparently it will take up too much of our valuable learning time. Salley told Ms. Cowoline that she couldn’t do that and when Ms. Cowoline asked why not, Salley apparently responded that – and I quote – “Well, she just couldn’t.” Ms. Cowoline said that “just couldn’t” is not a valid reason to hold the parade and that there is a lot of material that we still need to get through in class. Then Ms. Cowoline said that unless Salley Cat … Read more
Crafty Critterz: Hot Air Balloon
Submitted by: can with Zoey What you need: 1 balloon 1 square Box 4 pipe cleaner Makers Brown construction paper Scissors Tape / Glue What you do: 1. Cut off the top of the square box with your scissors to make the basket of your hot air balloon. 2. Cover the sides of the box with brown construction paper. Glue or tape it on securely. Then with a brown maker draw lines on the paper to make it look more like a basket. 3. Tape a pipe cleaner inside each corner of the box. They will hold up the balloon. 4. Blow up your balloon until it reaches the size that your want. Tie the balloon. 5. Decorate the balloon in any design that you want with the markers. 6. Tape the top end of the pipe cleaners to the sides of the balloon. Be careful the balloon can bust. Now your Webkinz will be ready to float around in their hot air balloon! Do you have a great idea for a craft, recipe or party game? We’d love to hear them!
Witch Hat Cookies
These yummy treats are eerily easy to make! What you need: - Chocolate wafer cookies - Hershey’s Kisses - Tube of green or orange icing What you do: 1. Place a circle of icing in the center of each cookie. 2. Press a Hershey’s Kiss into the icing. 3. If you like, you can use the icing to add a bow to the hat.
Alex Tiger: Not a Fan of Halloween
Uh hi, it’s Alex Tiger. I’m feeling kind of overwhelmed. We’ve been talking an awful lot about Halloween at school and outside of school. In fact, it seems to be about all anyone can talk about right now. It’s just, well, I’m kind of embarrassed to admit this but… well, I don’t really like Halloween. I like the candy part – that’s about the only part that makes it worth it. But I don’t like dressing up and I don’t like it when other people dress up in scary costumes. What’s so fun about being scared? I hate being scared. And when you go out on Halloween night, there are all these creepy looking costumes and you can’t tell who anybody is. And the worst part – even worse than the costumes – is all the frightening decorations. There are skulls and ghosts and bats and creepy crawlies all over the place. And some of those Jack-o-lanterns have terrifying faces. I don’t see why people have to make them look so nasty. I don’t mind some of the funny ones. I just don’t understand what is so great about this holiday. Why would anyone WANT to be scared? Can … Read more
Pink Coconut Cake
What You Need: White cake mix, sweetened shredded coconut, vanilla icing, red or pink food coloring, plastic bag, plate, adult assistant What you do: 1. With your adult assistant, prepare the cake mix according to the directions on the box (or, conversely, make a white cake from scratch). Before you pour the batter into the pan, add a couple of drops of food coloring and mix well – your batter will be pink! 2. Bake your cake. When it’s ready, have your adult assistant remove it from the oven and let it cool. 3. When the cake is cool, turn it out onto a plate. 4. Mix a few drops of food coloring into the vanilla frosting. Frost the cake with it. 5. Put your shredded coconut into a plastic bag and add a couple of drops of food coloring. Close the bag and shake it well to distribute the color. Spread the coconut onto a plate and let it dry. 6. When the coconut is dry, pat it onto the sides of the cake and onto the top. 7. Enjoy sharing your sweet (and pink) cake!
Sweet Owl Cookies
Hoo loves cookies? I do, that’s hoo! What you need: - 3/4 cups butter, softened - 1 cups sugar - 2 eggs - ½ teaspoon vanilla - 2 ½ cups flour - 1 teaspoons baking powder - ½ teaspoon salt - Chocolate chips - Almonds - Bottle cap, cleaned - Small fork - An adult assistant to help you with this recipe What you do: 1. Preheat oven to 400°. 2. Mix butter and sugar in a large bowl. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well. 3. In another bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. 4. Add flour mixture to butter mixture and mix to form a ball. 5. Cover and refrigerate dough for at least an hour. 6. On a floured surface, roll out dough to about ½” thickness. 7. Using a small glass or cup as a cookie as a cookie cutter, cut cookies out in circle shapes. 8. Set your circles on an ungreased baking sheet about 1” apart. 9. Using leftover dough, form two small balls for each cookie and press them into the top half of one of your larger circles. These are your owls’ eyes. 10. Press a chocolate chip into the centre of … Read more
Clay Owl Craft
This craft is so easy you’d be wise to make a few. What you need: - Sculpting clay - Marker cap What you do: 1. Roll out clay to about ¼” thickness and cut out a circle using a drinking glass as a cookie cutter. 2. Use the cap of a marker to lightly press overlapping semi-circles into the front of the circle to form the breast feathers of your owl. 3. Fold in the two sides of your circle to create the wings. 4. Fold down the top of your circle to form the head and squeeze the middle of the flap slightly to make a beak shape. 5. Mold the ears into points. 6. Make two eyes with the top of the marker. 7. If you’re using baking clay, have an adult assistant help you bake it according to instructions and then paint your creation. These little owls are a real hoot!
Molly and Millie Fly a Kite
Hey! It’s me, Molly. I just had the most fun day ever with my little sister, Millie. Today I took her to the park with her new kite. It was a really windy day so I knew it would be perfect. I told Millie to hang on to the spool of string and I ran and ran with the kite until the wind caught it. It flew so high! At first Millie was a bit scared she was going to let go of the spool but I ran back and helped her hold it. As she watched the kite dance and bob around she giggled and giggled! She thought it was so much fun. Suddenly, though, the wind changed and all of a sudden the kite started diving down. I tried to run in a different direction to catch the wind again, but it was too late – the kite plunged right into a tree. We ran over to the tree to get the kite, but it was totally stuck. Millie was so upset! I didn’t really know what to do. I tried tugging at it but it was really wedged … Read more
Crafty Critterz: Candy Table
Submitted by: Chr with Jules What you need: Black table cloth Glass jars Candy Chocolates Figure cut outs Black take out containers Sliver boxes Blue & black tissue Cookies What you do: 1. Place black table cloth over table. 2. Put all your favorite candy in glass jars and arrange on table. 3. Place black take out containers in the middle of table. 4. Line silver boxes with tissue paper and fill with cookies. Do you have a great idea for a craft, recipe or party game? We’d love to hear them!
