Oh... What to do? What to do?

This time of year always brings me to a dilemma in my teaching world.  We hear about Halloween- no Halloween in schools.  Should we read stories and do art/craft projects that seem to "promote" Halloween or not?  Is it insensitive?  Will it offend parents or the community?  So many questions I ask myself. 

But... every year I bring myself back to reality by looking at my purpose and intent.  How can I help support my preschoolers and their needs?  That helps me a lot! 

Here is what I feel that young children gain from this unit:

*** Comfort and security- They learn through the funny stories we read and activities we do that it is not scary to walk down the street and see people dressed up in a costume-whether they are participating in "trick or treating" or just going home from childcare or the store.  They learn that it is ok if they walk past the costume aisle at Target and see scary things or hear that spooky music.  It is only pretend. 

*** They learn vocabulary.  They are able to put a name to that scary skeleton they may see and remember the story where the skeleton's bones "rattle, rattle".  They remember that we used the maracas to "rattle" the bones.  They connect the vocabulary with fun and silliness rather than something scary. 

*** Increases expressive communication.  Several children are SO EXCITED about Halloween.  They want to talk about it all the time.  Even children that have limited communication will often initiate conversations to tell everyone what they are going to be.  This is a way to extend their interests and learn about things that the children are interested in.  It has meaning to many children!

***  Without getting into "grown up" debates about what is "real" and not real we are able to look at real and pretend.  This is a huge developmental stage for children to go through.  They learn that they can pretend to be something that they are not and it is really fun.  This will extend to their play and social/language development.  When chidren pretend to be parents and take care of a doll they are practicing social/language/vocabulary skills.  When children pretend to be firefighters putting out fires they learn to cooperate/work together/solve problems.  These are all very important social skills that children need to learn.  So when I read "Clifford's Halloween" and Clifford is dressed up as a ghost we will talk about the real/pretend side of it in that manner.  Is it really a ghost or is Clifford just pretending to be a ghost and wearing a costume? If you see someone that is dressed up like a scary monster/pirate/dracula is it really a monster or is just someone pretending and having fun?  etc. 

*** I am in the business of teaching young children and helping them learn about the world around them.  Reality is that Halloween is part of their world.  I am not promoting Halloween or "Trick or Treating"  I am just helping children learn. 

I hope this offers some explanation of why I continue to do a unit like this every year even when it is not always the most "politically correct" thing to do.  If you have questions or concerns about this please call me and we can meet.