Some Spook-tacular Ideas for a Happy Halloween - a guest post by Anna Wilson - Nosy Crow Skip to content
Posted by Anna, October 25, 2019

Some Spook-tacular Ideas for a Happy Halloween – a guest post by Anna Wilson

This month we’re proud to have published the National Trust: 2020 Nature Month-By-Month: A Children’s Almanac, written by nature-lover and wild swimmer Anna Wilson and beautifully illustrated by Elly Jahnz. This fantastic, fully illustrated guide to 2020 includes nature spotter guides, indoor and outdoor craft and activity ideas, seasonal recipes and celebrations of religious festivals and special events.

And today we’re very pleased to share a piece by Anna on some fun Halloween activities featured in the book, which you can read below.
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This autumn term is very long . . . the summer seems a lifetime away and we’ve all – teachers, parents, carers and children – been working hard for weeks and weeks. So, it’s a relief that the holidays are here again. I am looking out at blue skies and sunshine and hoping that this weather is going to last for a while!

But even if it doesn’t, there are lots of games and activities that you can do indoors. I had great fun coming up with ideas for Nature Month-by-Month – in the 2019 edition you’ll find lots of ideas for Halloween games, for example. These can be played inside or outside. I loved writing about these because it took me back to when my children were small. I didn’t used to be very happy about them going Trick or Treating as we lived in the countryside and the houses were quite a long way apart from each other down very dark lanes! But I wanted them to have fun on Halloween, so we would invite all their friends to come to our house and we would have a big party. Here are some of the games we would play:

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If you want to make your own yummy food for Halloween instead, how about trying these easy pumpkin muffins?

ALMANAC_INT_132-145_October_LR1And once you’ve scooped out all the pumpkin flesh, you’ll have some lovely hollow pumpkins which you can carve to make Jack o’Lanterns! While I was researching and thinking up new ideas for an updated version of Nature Month-by-Month for 2020, I decided to write about pumpkin carving, as we always enjoyed doing this during half term, and it was a great activity to do on a rainy day or during one of the dark evenings after the clocks had gone back. Here’s a sneaky-peek at the pages from the new 2020 edition of the book so that you can make your own pumpkin Jack o’Lanterns for this Halloween:

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Whatever you do this holiday – whether you choose to go for blustery walks or whether you stay indoors and keep cosy – I hope you have a good rest and lots of fun! As for me, seeing as it’s so sunny today, I think I’m going to take the dog and go for a walk through the crunchy autumn leaves this afternoon. Or maybe even go for a swim if the sea is calm enough . . .

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Thank you, Anna! The National Trust: 2020 Nature Month-By-Month: A Children’s Almanac is available now, here. You can take a look inside the book below:

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