Welcome to our “Halloween Week” – a collection of days filled with relaxed learning and fun activities all themed to the awesome holiday – Halloween! For this day, we turned our attention to the mysterious Headless Horseman! Read on to check out a fun filled day of learning, reading, crafts, and activities all on this legendary figure!
A TYPICAL DAY
All kids are different and you can definitely vary your day with whatever works for you 🙂 Our relaxed & learning fun day kicks off with an introduction to the day’s theme. Then, we move onto videos and themed activities (reading, writing – or story telling – time, crafts, food crafts/snacks, and games or experiments). Feel free to pick and choose whatever works for you 🙂
INTRO
Although the headless horseman is quite a popular character often making appearances around Halloween, it may not be one that your little ones are as familiar with. The horseman can trace its origins several hundreds of years back and has some gruesome origins. BUT, one of the more popular stories involving the Headless Horseman came from Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. This is the version that we focused on for the day 🙂
Note: while the stories surrounding headless riders may be a bit mature for younger ones, we focused a bit on Sleepy Hollow as well as the author Washington Irving. Most of the books and videos we used throughout the day are also geared toward elementary age kids.
These resources are some great introductions 🙂
WHAT TO WATCH
We find that mixing in a short video themed to our day is a great way to add some learning fun! We try to pick informative videos OR mix in a cartoon favorite (where they don’t even realize they’re learning). Below are some of the videos we picked from for the day:
- Tracing the haunting roots of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by CBS Morning (6m)
- The Legend of Sleepy Hollow | National Geographic by National Geographic (2m)
- The Origins of The Headless Horseman – (Exploring the Stories Behind the Legend) by Mythology & Fiction Explained (6m)
- The Headless Horseman | From the Dullahan to Sleepy Hollow by Mythology Unleashed (9m)
- The Legend of Sleepy Hollow 1990 PG
- The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1h) Cartoon Movie
FOOD CRAFTS / SNACKS
What’s more fun than taking a break and having a simple snack??? Including the snack in your theme of the day! We find that our kiddos are more than happy to eat the snacks they create especially when they can arrange them into fun shapes and scenes!
Since the Headless Horseman is always featured with a pumpkin, we naturally gravitated to all things pumpkin for our snack 🙂 BUT, the last link has quite a few references to Washington Irving’s version and some corresponding recipes – perfect for The Legend of Sleepy Hollow fans 🙂
- Pumpkin Snacks – Pumpkin Bread, Pumpkin Muffins
- Sleepy Hollow by InLiterature
READING
It’s no secret that reading is an important part of learning, which is why we pick out a handful of books that are fun and filled with some learning tidbits. For our older ones, we have them fill out some worksheets (or let them create some of their own comics) to describe what they read and/or learned! These are a few we picked from for the day:
- The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (Disney Classic) by Golden Book
- What Is the Story of the Headless Horseman? by Keenan, Sheila, Who HQ, Thomson, Andrew
- The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving
WRITING & WRITING PROMPTS
Just like reading, writing is a great way to keep kids learning by both encouraging their creativity and thought process as well as helping them practice their motor skills and penmanship.
If you’ve got a little one, have them trace words related to the theme: HALLOWEEN, HORSEMAN, SLEEPY HOLLOW
If you’ve got older children, have them write a sentence or two up to a page or two (depending on their age). Encourage them to be creative AND give reasons for why they made certain choices. This was our writing prompt of the day (and we offered up some examples as well) but definitely pick something your kiddo might be interested in writing about!
- Imagine you were Ichobod from the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Would you be afraid of the Headless Horseman when you heard the story or would you be intrigued?
- (If you haven’t already), would you like to visit a town with a scary story attached to it?
CREATE & CRAFT
If you’ve got a crafty little one, a simple craft is a great way to keep them interested in the topic. While their creative juices are flowing, you can also chat about what they’ve learned so far or ask them what else they’re excited about learning!
STEM & STEAM ACTIVITIES
While crafting and writing get their creativity and imagination flowing, we also like to add in an activity that gets them thinking along the lines of science, technology, engineering, or math! These engaging activities or experiments are a great way to keep them learning!
- Lego Horseman. Halloween legos may be difficult if you have a bit of a collection, you can create a headless horseman figure and a Sleepy Hollow scene to go along with it 🙂 The main pieces are a horse, a person dressed in all black, and an orange oval/circle piece for the pumpkin. Then you can get creative with the scene 🙂
- 500 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle Headless Horseman
JUST FOR FUN
And if you’ve got some extra time, round out the day with a family board game!
THANK YOU!!!
Thank you so much for checking out our learning fun article!
If you did enjoy this, please let us know below or follow us on Pinterest. Also, If you’re still looking for more Halloween Learning Fun, check out our Halloween Week or Halloween Ideas!
Happy Learning & Happy Halloween!
