halloween in poland

Today is Halloween, and looking at the piles of completed Fotoplay pages sent to me by the children from the Early Stage School in Poland, it occurs to me that this holiday stands so high above all others for creativity and imagination. There’s really no other holiday that requires so much creativity and imagination, and there’s no other holiday that is so kid-driven and kid-designed. Which other holiday has, at it’s core, the anything-goes question: “What would you like to be?” Which other holiday encourages kids to step right into the heart of a nightmare, and move into the world of vampires and witches and ghosts? When else are kids told to talk to strangers, to knock on their doors and invite them to choose whether to give a “trick or a treat?!”

In allowing kids to do all of this forbidden stuff, and to, (most importantly) put their own creative stamp on the whole thing (via costume and pumpkin carving/design) Halloween in is a class by itself. And in mid October, it’s a great part of the classroom! Which is why I was asked to design Fotoplay pages with Halloween vocabulary for the students at Early Stage. Below are their super-creative responses:

Dear Early Stage Students:

Bravo!

Happy Halloween!

and

Boo!