Updated on October 5, 2019
Halloween is right around the corner, which means that stores and homes will soon be covered in ghosts, pumpkins, and skeletons. To get in the Halloween spirit, we wanted to share this fun book that tells the story of a skeleton in need. He receives help from the friends around him (sometimes with humorous results). This book also provided us with the perfect opportunity to have fun with some skeleton activities, games and crafts!

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Skelly’s Halloween was written by David Martin and illustrated by Lori Richmond. This playful tale follows a little skeleton named Skelly who is ready to go trick-or-treating. However, when his ghost costume causes him to fly through the air and crash to the ground, he finds himself in need of help.

He asks friends passing by to help put his bones back together, but no one seems to be able to put him back to the shape he was in before. When a group of young trick-or-treaters passes by, will they be able to help? This sweet and funny story is accompanied by vibrant and often hilarious illustrations. Kids will love watching Skelly take different forms!

Bone Matching

Using this free printable, cut out a series of broken bone shapes and have kids match them up. I wrote capital and lower case letters on either end of the broken bones to help my daughter practice her letter recognition skills. You could also use the printable to help kids practice a variety of other skills including:

• Number Recognition – numeral on one half, matching number of dots on the other
• Rhyming Words – either use pictures of rhyming words on either half, or the actual words
• Shape Recognition – name of shape on one half, picture of shape on the other half
• Math Facts – equation on one half, solution on the other
• Color Recognition – name of color on one half, picture of color on the other

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Skeleton Letters

This activity is a fun way to practice making letters, while also working on fine motor skills. Provide kids with a pile of Q-tips and a black piece of paper. Call out letters of the alphabet and have them create the letters out of the Q-tips. You can cut them or bend them to make it easier to create the letters.

Bone Snack

• Melt a 12 oz bag of white chocolate wafers in the microwave or over a double boiler.
• Stir halved pretzel sticks and Cheerios into the melted chocolate. (We used Apple Cinnamon Cheerios that we had on hand, and they added a nice extra flavor!).
• Use a spoon to scoop out piles of “bones” onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.
• Place two candy eyeballs onto each pile.
• Freeze until firm.

Q-tip Skeletons

Inspired by Skelly’s dilemma in the story, this activity allows kids to create their own skeleton shapes. Gather a collection of Q-tips and cut some of them in half. Give each child a blank piece of black paper as a workspace, and encourage them to use the Q-tips to put Skelly back together. They can also recreate the skeleton shapes in the illustrations, or make up their own.

Masking Tape Skeletons

The young group of trick-or-treaters that saves Skelly includes a girl in a skeleton costume. Use a black t-shirt and roll of masking tape to give kids an opportunity to create their own simple skeleton costume. If you have more than one child playing this game, you can have kids put on their t-shirt while another child adds the tape. You could also have kids lay their shirts on the ground while they add the masking tape “bones”.

Does your family have any skeleton activities that you do around Halloween? Share in the comments below!

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