Living Montessori Now

Montessori Inspiration for Parents and Teachers

Montessori Monday – Halloween Grace and Courtesy

By 30 Comments

Halloween is a fun holiday – and it’s a holiday that’s made even better with grace and courtesy.

Halloween Grace and Courtesy

Photo is of my now-adult-kids, Christina (at 2½) and Will (at 7½). ready for trick-or-treating!

Halloween Walking on the Line

You can use a Halloween theme with a classic Montessori activity for developing grace of movement – walking on the line. Here’s an Activity of the Week post with ideas for lines and extensions you can use: Activity of the Week – Walking on the Line. When I was a Montessori teacher, we used colored electrical tape to make a circle or ellipse on the floor, although you can use whatever you want to create a line.

For Halloween, it could be fun for your child to walk on the line while carrying a pumpkin. For more advanced balancing, your child could balance a Halloween book or even a cloth or plastic pumpkin on his or her head. We had a large, soft cloth pumpkin that worked well for that.

Halloween Manners

Etiquette lessons are important any time of the year – and especially for holidays. Halloween is no exception. Demonstration with role play is probably the most effective technique for introducing and reinforcing Halloween manners.

I’d recommend pretending you’re trick-or-treating to show your child the appropriate Halloween etiquette. Here are the points I made with my own children (in wording similar to what I’d use in a demonstration):

  • We only walk on sidewalks, not through yards or flower beds.
  • We never go to a house with the lights off.
  • If the porch light is on, I knock or ring the doorbell once and wait a bit. I don’t keep knocking or ringing the doorbell. If no one answers, I go to the next house. I don’t try to peek into the house.
  • When someone answers the door, I smile and say, “Trick-or-treat!”
  • If the person holds out a candy bowl or bag, I take only one piece of candy unless the person says I may take more.
  • I always say, “Thank you,” after I’m given a treat. Even if I don’t like the candy, I still say, “Thank you.” I don’t say that I don’t like the candy.
  • It’s always nice to say, “Happy Halloween!” at the end.

After you’ve demonstrated the appropriate trick-or-treat manners, it helps to give your child plenty of practice with trick-or-treat role playing. Your child could pretend to trick-or-treat at your house. You, a sibling, or even a doll, stuffed animal, or puppet (with your help, of course!) could give the treat. You could reverse roles as well.

Free Thank-You Songs and Rhymes for Home or School - Have a Polite Halloween!I have a post at Bits of Positivity (my other blog) with free thank-you songs and rhymes for home or school to make learning to say thank you more memorable and more fun!

Other Halloween Posts (updated 2021)

Amazon Affiliate:

Halloween Books for Kids

Teal Pumpkin Products on Amazon

Happy Halloween! 🙂

Deb - Signature

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Sasha says

    Walking the Line is such a great activity – we have been practicing holding a pumpkin just as you mentioned in this post! The children love this simple extension. Thanks for sharing these ideas and the various link. Always so helpful… Sasha

    Reply

    • Deb says

      Thanks, Sasha! I definitely love seasonal extensions like that for walking on the line. And I loved all the seasonal activities you had during October! 🙂

      Reply

  2. Torkona says

    We don’t ‘celebrate’ Halloween in Australia. Infact, it’s frowned upon to do it. Some people have decorations up, and it’s happening more and more, but alot of people with say “we’re not america” to halloween. I think so too. It’s a pity we didnt think up the idea in the first place, otherwise every kid in the street would be doing it 🙂

    Happy halloween!

    – tork

    Reply

    • Deb says

      Thanks for your comment, Torkona! I find it fascinating that holidays vary so much from country to country. I was surprised at how unimportant Halloween was in the UK when I was working toward my master’s degree there. It was barely mentioned at the day nursery where I did my school placement!

      Reply

  5. Melissa says

    Great ideas! I had never considered what a great opportunity to practice grace and courtesy Halloween can be! I hope you have a great one today 🙂

    Reply

    • Deb says

      Thanks, Melissa! My husband and I have a quiet Halloween now that our kids are grown. Our neighborhood is in the Cheyenne Mountain foothills in Colorado Springs, so we don’t tend to get trick-or-treaters. They have to work too hard for their treats on our hilly streets! I hope your Halloween was wonderful! 🙂

      Reply

      • Melissa says

        I really miss this time of year in that part of the world. I love that part of the city! I held a little Montessori-based Spanish summer camp in Cheyenne Canyon Park for a couple of years and really loved that particular spot. I did my internship + 2 years at Giving Tree not so far from you, too! I miss it so! But I digress… glad you had a nice, quiet Halloween 🙂

        Reply

        • Deb says

          It sounds like your Montessori-based Spanish summer camp was awesome – great idea and location for it! How fun that you lived in Colorado Springs, too! 🙂

          Reply

  7. coedith says

    I love real life lessons in grace and courtesy. Halloween provides plenty of “practice” in patience and thank yous.

    Reply

    • Deb says

      Thanks, Coedith! So true … children definitely get a lot of practice saying thank you during trick-or-treating if they’re taught to say thank you for each treat. 🙂

      Reply

    • Deb says

      Thanks so much for your comment, Amanda! It is sad when kids and parents don’t say thank you. Thank you for sharing your post. I love your ideas about courtesy in bilingual families. 🙂

      Reply

    • Deb says

      Thanks, Lexi! Will had fun planning out his spelunker costume that year. And Christina always enjoyed dressing in girly costumes such as an angel, ballerina, or princess! 🙂

      Reply

  10. Malea says

    Your rules for courtesy are the same ones I was expected to follow when growing up, and we were expected to be doubly courteous on nights like Halloween when so many others forget their manners entirely. As an adult, I can honestly say that I’m glad my parents were so insistent on these points.

    The practice of walking on a line, or balancing was also very important for me as a child. I have inner ear problems, and vision problems. Balance practice was really important as I grew up as a result.

    Reply

    • Deb says

      Thanks for your comment, Malea! I was so thankful that my parents taught me manners, too. It’s definitely a gift we can give our children. I hadn’t thought about walking on the line in relation to inner ear problems, but it makes a lot of sense that it would be very helpful. 🙂

      Reply

  11. sheila says

    a day late and a dollar short getting here, lol but great tips! Thankfully mine are all done with trick or treating (I think, lol) But this is a great post for those who still have little ones! SO important to teach all these things, and respect/courtesy/please/thank you… 🙂

    Reply

    • Deb says

      Thanks, Sheila! I think often parents don’t realize how much practice young children need before they feel comfortable saying please and thank you in public.

      Reply

  12. Grandma Bonnie says

    Thank you for this wonderful post. Manners are so important even on Halloween. It is so sad to see children trick-or-treating and complaining to the neighbors they don’t like their treat.

    Reply

    • Deb says

      Thanks so much for your kind words, Grandma Bonnie! I think it’s sad, too, when children don’t say thank you for treats – and especially when they complain about their treats. The nice thing is that they can be taught good manners without too much difficulty.

      Reply

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