Are your kids afraid of monsters? My daughter recently decided that she is scared of monsters. She only mentions it right before bed, and she doesn’t seem too frightened when she talks about it. To head off any later issues with monsters that she may have developed, I decided to ease her fears with some monster fun, courtesy of one of my favorite books as a kid!
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The Monster at the End of this Book by Jon Stone is a classic which has been enjoyed by kids and adults for many years. It was a favorite of mine growing up and I can’t wait to share it with my daughter over and over! This book follows Grover, the friendly monster from Sesame Street as he begs the reader not to turn each page because there is a – gasp – MONSTER at the end of the book! The sweet conclusion where Grover figures out that HE is the monster is sure to entertain young kids. The interactive text encourages kids to take part in the story by turning pages. My daughter loves the hilarious antics that Grover comes up with the stop you from finishing the book.
With Halloween approaching, there are many fun and educational activities that you can tie in to this entertaining read aloud!
Monster Simon Says – This is a great game for kids of all ages. The leader will call out “Monster Says” before each monster-related action, and everyone will have to follow along. When the leader says an action without saying “Monster Says”, then anyone who follows is out. Have kids get creative with the monster actions, such as “Stomp like a monster” or “Growl like a monster”.
Check out this list of monstrously funny monster books for more monster fun!
Monster Cookies – Bake up a delicious batch of Monster cookies together! This adorable recipe from Lil’ Luna uses brightly colored dough and edible candy eyes to create fun and yummy cookies that kids will gobble up!
Blow Monsters – This is a fun and easy art project that will use your kids’ imagination! Pour a blob of paint onto a piece of paper and have kids blow on the paint using a straw. The harder they blow, the more the paint will spread out, creating a big blob monster. You can add plastic googly-eyes to the monsters when they have dried.
Shape Monsters – Cut out a variety of shapes from different colors of paper. Cut pairs of smaller shapes out of white paper and small black circles (for the eyes). Let kids build monsters out of the various shapes.
Help chase monsters away at bedtime!
Monster Spray – Kids still afraid of monsters in their room, despite the friendly monster in this book? Monster spray can help to ease their minds while lulling them to sleep! Get a plastic spray bottle and fill it with water and a few drops of Lavender essential oil. You can decorate the bottle to make it extra fancy looking. When kids are afraid of Monsters in their room, spray this around and chase the monsters away, while the lavender scent helps them calm down for sleeping!
Roll a Monster Game – Give kids paper and crayons. Going down a list of monster characteristics (heads, eyes, noses, horns, ears, mouths, teeth, etc), have kids roll a die and add that many of the item to their monster. 6 heads? 3 eyes? 2 mouths? See how each kid makes a different monster using the same numbers! You can even take this a step further with older kids and have them create a story about their monster.
Monsters don’t have to be scary for kids! The Monster at the End of This Book is a great way to make monsters less scary, as well as these fun and colorful monster activities. Give kids a reason to have fun with monsters!
Did this book help to make monsters less scary to your kids? Post pictures of your kid’s creations below!
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Loved that book. I really love the monster spray today. Lavender is great for helping with relaxation and sleep.
Thank you! It is one of my favorite books, and I hope the monster spray will help lots of kids to sleep better!
So much fun! We will have to try the blow monsters and monster game out! We’ve read this book but i need to add it to our collection!
Thanks! It was one of my favorites growing up. I hope you have as much fun making the blow monsters as my daughter and I did!
LOVE “The Monster at the End of this Book”! One of my favorite stories. Love your ideas to have activities tie into the book.
Thank you! It’s such a cute book, you can’t help but love it!
My kiddo has three(!) grovers, all of whom have to live on his bed. If we’re playing with stuffed animals and asking each other about their sounds, he’ll tell me that Grover says “You turned the page!”
That is adorable!! I love how kids pick up on things like that!
That monster spray is genius! I need to make some for my 5 year old!
My daughter loves it! She likes to cheer “No monsters” when I spray it.
Always like to do a craft that goes along with the book. This one would be fun and not scary.
It’s such a fun book and makes monsters funny instead of scary!
Love this book and your activities!! pinning for later!!!
xo
Taylor
http://www.reeseshardwear.com
Thank you! It’s one of my favorites!
This is awesome! The monster at the end of this book was one i read as a child and now I read to my little one 🙂
It is such a fun book! I loved it as a kid, and I’m so excited my daughter has been loving it as well!
I love this book! It’s so funny to kids and adults too actually. A great one to feature!
Thanks! It has always been one of my favorites, and it is so much fun to read aloud!
This is such a cute idea! My little guy loves straws, so this craft would be perfect for him!
I’m so glad! I hope you have a lot of fun with it!
I love some of these ideas! I am going to have to try these with my girls!
I’m so glad! I hope you have fun with them!
I had this book when I was a kid. Completely forgot about it until I read your post!
I’m so glad I could remind you! It was one of my favorites as a kid!
Great ideas. I did the monster spray too. I used a febreze spray and told her monster’s do not like it to smell nice. She totally went for it!
That is so cute! It has really helped my daughter!
what cute ideas! This was a book my preschoolers really loved. I like how you’re using different activities to connect the book and other experiences.
Thanks! We had a lot of fun bringing this one to life!
Love that book and love these ideas! I can’t wait to make those cookies with my boys. They’re going to love them.
I’m so glad! I hope they have fun with them!
It sounds like you’ve nipped the potential monster fear in the bud. Super cute ideas to use with little ones!
Thanks! They have definitely helped with any monster fears so far!
I used to use the “monster spray” for my daughter when she was little too. Love the blow monster art! Looks like a fun activity to do with my 4 year boy and I think my 8 year old will like it too.
It’s definitely one that all ages can have fun with! I hope you try it together!
This is such a fun activity, my daughter would love it!
Thanks! I hope she does!
I absolutely love these blow monsters! It is such a great way to make monsters not so scary. My Granddaughter is not old enough to be scared of monsters but she loves when we read to her. I will have to add this to her must get list.
It is a really great book for stopping a fear of monsters even before it starts! We had a lot of fun with the blow monsters too!
I Love these awesome ideas, you really got creative around the theme of the book! The painted monsters are super cute and the spray is such a fun idea! My daughter would love these
Thank you! We had a lot of fun with it!
i love this ! the kids in my family will love it too
Monster spray – so cute!!
Thank you!
I love that book- we just picked up a copy! Your monster spray bottle idea is the best!!
Thank you! The book is one of my favorites!
Seriously you always come up with the funnest crafts to go along with the books! I just love when you have a new post go live!
Aw, thank you so much! I’m so glad!
Definitely saving this for my daughter’s future monster phase! I love that Grover book!
I’m so glad! It’s one of my favorites!
That monster spray is so cute.
Thank you!
Love this idea, I’m always thinkinh of ways to interact with my kids. Even though They arent afraid. They will love these activities lol.
I’m so glad! It’s such a fun book!
These crafts are so cute! I would love to read this book to my boys and then do the crafts with it!
Thank you! It is one of our favorite books!