Tuesday Book Club- Boo! A Book of Spooky Surprises

Boo! A Book of Spooky Surprises by J. Litton is one of my son's (and my students) favorites! I made up a little melody to go with the pages and he loves singing it to his little sister.  This is a great book for fall.  It does not mention Halloween specifically but utilizes a lot of typically Halloween characters like spiders, ghosts, witches and wizards so be sure to know your school and students before you use it. Click the picture to see where you can find the book! 

Night Owl, Night Owl   |    m-d m-d

Was that you?                |     l,-d m___

Were you the one who  |     m m-f  m  f

Shouted Boo!               |      m  d   l,___



For the last line I change it up a bit to make it a little more excited for the reveal

m-f m-f m-f m__   mm-f m-f  m-f  m___     l-si  l___


After I sing the book, we turn it into a guessing game, where one student hides their eyes, and another chosen by the teacher shouts "I'm a ___(their Halloween costume) and I say Boo!" or another phrase fun for the season and the student hiding their eyes sings "___, ___(guess x2) was that you?, Were you the one who shouted boo?" using the melody above.  If the guesser guesses correct, they get another turn (up to 3 turns total in my room) but if they are wrong, the student who tricked them gets a turn to hide and then guess. 

Another fun way to use it in older grades is to turn the book into a Rondo.  For each page turn, call on a student to make a 4 character pattern/ rhythm and either say it twice OR say the pattern and then say "Were you the one who shouted boo?"  

Example: Zombie, Ghost, Witch, Bat :||                  OR 

Zombie, Ghost, Witch, Bat. Were you the one who shouted boo?

You could even have students say their character pattern first, and then say your rhythm language the second time through such as: 

Zombie, Ghost, Witch, Bat.
Ti-Ti, Ta, Ta, Ta (or Ta-di, Ta, Ta, Ta or Du-de, Du, Du, Du, etc.) 

What fun books have you adapted for your classroom?