THE SPOOKY SINGING PUMPKIN

This story happened last Halloween. And it happened in a small village in the mountains. It
was late October, as you know, October 31st, and the fall season was in full display. The
leaves were falling out of the trees and the paths and gardens were full of them. It was a
multicolor carpet that decorated the forests and the streets of that village.

You know what happens on Halloween. That night the children go outside in costumes, for
example: (show the children pictures of different halloween monsters to elicit the names). It’s
a very fun night and everyone wants to go trick or treating.

In the village there was a boy, whose name was Peter. Peter was addicted to this moment.
He always went as a vampire, just like me today. He just wanted the moment to come when
he would go outside and play pranks on people. One of the funniest pranks he used to play
on the other villagers was the one about making something disappear. It was just like this:
(play the trick of the finger).

On other occasions he played other pranks like for example this one:

He particularly liked that one. It was so funny. He used to laugh and laugh after doing that.
You could tell that he was a little naughty, especially on that night. He used to ring or knock
on doors and run round the corner. When the person opened the door expecting to see
children trick or treating, he used to throw rotten eggs at those people! (game with pictures
and balls of paper) play funny music.

Preparing for that big night he had also done something to a pumpkin he had collected from
the crops surrounding the village. He wanted that pumpkin to be alive! He had to set up a
ritual to accomplish that. And it wasn’t easy, I’ll tell you that right now.

To perform the ritual he had to gather some ingredients. Some of those ingredients were
hard to find, so he needed help from other kids in the village. He needed a spider, a bat, a
rat and a snake. Can you help me find these animals? GAME WITH THE CHILDREN.

After that, the only thing he needed was a little bit of magic and some other ingredients that I
have right here…he put them in this cauldron and….ready! It’s ready. The magic potion that
he had created had a very strange and dark power. It could turn normal objects into evil
objects by injecting life into them!

He had no other idea but to do that with the pumpkin he had just collected from the crops.
He got the potion and cut open the pumpkin top. He cut out the insides of the pumpkin,
threw them away, all the tendrils and seeds and that…and then he poured the potion inside
the pumpkin.

At first nothing happened, but soon he started to see the effects. The pumpkin started to
glow and it started to talk! Not just talk, but to sing!

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The song was something like: “Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat,
if you don’t I won’t be mad, I’ll just make you wish you had”.

It was the spookiest song he had ever heard. And the pumpkin was determined, somehow,
to get its own way. The pumpkin looked at Peter. He was stunned to be looked at by a ghost
pumpkin, apparently! But it was happening. And he knew that the pumpkin meant no good.

Suddenly the pumpkin jumped out of his hands and out the window. Peter was frozen. He
couldn’t believe what he had done. Who knows what the pumpkin was going to do next? He
had to go after her. And he jumped out of the window and tried to go after the glow of the
pumpkin, because it was very dark already.

He looked around but he didn’t see a thing. Meanwhile, the pumpkin was at large, bouncing
around and looking for something. She was still singing that spooky song. Trick or treat,
smell my feet….

The pumpkin then found a pack of children in costumes, ready to go trick-or-treating. But she
realised that she couldn’t do anything because she didn’t have a body to move around. No
arms, legs, hands, feet, nothing. She had to find a body somewhere. That’s when she hit
upon the idea. The costume shop! She had to go there and somehow get a body that
nobody else was using.

The costume shop door was locked with a padlock and the padlock had a combination. The
3-number combination had some reminders written next to the padlock, just in case the
owner didn’t remember the numbers.

The reminders were these: Number of the month when Halloween is celebrated, the day on
which it happens, and today’s day of the week number. This last one changed everyday. It
was an electronic number that permanently changed. So, the month is 10, the day is 31, and
today’s day of the week is 6. She bounced and with the tip of her nose she punched in the
numbers using the keypad.

The door swung open and she hopped inside. She saw a lot of costumes and several
mannequins, one of which didn’t have a head! It had been knocked down and was lying on
the floor of the store. The pumpkin placed herself between the shoulders of the mannequin
and used the magic that she had to turn that mannequin into something alive!

She sang that strange, spooky song one more time and the evil spell fell on that plastic body.
(make a body with cardboard and attach the pumpkin, making it stand in front of the
children).

Now she could move around! It was time to terrorize some children!

Peter, on the other hand, was very worried because he couldn’t find the pumpkin anywhere.
He’d been walking around the village looking for her but to no avail. Then he saw something
strange in the costume shop. An eerie glow, as if something had been lit up inside. From the
distance he saw the door ajar. He slid through.

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The pumpkin, on the other hand, was getting something ready for anybody who could
surprise her doing what she was doing. She had found some products in the store and was
going to give Peter a nasty surprise! (experiment with the children). She threw it at him when
she saw him come through a line of costumes hanging from an iron railing. Peter shrieked in
fear and surprise and rubbed his eyes, because he couldn’t see anything!

The pumpkin started to laugh and jumped through the window of the shop! It shattered in a
million pieces as the pumpkin went through. She then disappeared in the foggy streets of the
village, laughing a devilish laugh.

Peter then decided to go after her, because all of that had been his fault. He followed the
laughter. Suddenly, the laughter stopped and he heard that song again. The pumpkin was
about to go trick-or-treating! What was the pumpkin going to do when someone opened the
door?

He walked the streets feeling scared and uneasy. He knew the pumpkin was somewhere,
stalking him. He then remembered what could be done with some glow sticks. The sticks
could be arranged to form the shape of a star. If he stood in the middle of that star, the magic
created by it would protect him from any danger. So he tried (game with the children).

At first it was ok, but then something happened. The pumpkin was actually very close, and
she knew exactly how to come through that protection. (game with the children, something
that creates wind or makes a noise, whose sound wave will blow the sticks away).

That’s when the pumpkin jumped at him! She was about to eat him alive! He had to run for
his life! (play the game of differences with the children)

Imagine what it feels like to be chased after by a pumpkin who’s singing that creepy song
while breathing down your neck! - trick or treat, smell my feet……..

The pumpkin was now really hot on his heels, and he had to put some more distance
between the pumpkin and himself, so he decided to throw some of the pieces of candy he
had in his trick or treat bag at the pumpkin to slow her down (game with the children).

The pumpkin DID slow down a little, but not enough. He kept running and running until he
found himself trapped right at the end of a ledge of rock. There was a cliff a few inches away
from him, and he didn’t want to fall over the edge! So he had to think of a way to get the
pumpkin distracted and get out of there. He had to wait until the pumpkin was really close.
Then he said:

- Look! There’s a three headed monkey behind you!

- What? - the pumpkin exclaimed, turning around.

That was his chance! He tried to run around the pumpkin and downhill again, but the
pumpkin was too fast. She grabbed him by the cape he was wearing and gave a strong pull
to it. Peter was almost hoisted in the air, landed right on the ledge, caught some loose
stones and slid over the edge. He fell down the cliff!

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He screamed as he was falling down, but luckily there were some branches that he could
hold onto. He grabbed some of them and that slowed down the fall. He was practically at the
bottom of the cliff. Just near a very old cemetery that had been abandoned a long time ago!

It was the creepiest place to be in at that point. He heard the pumpkin coming for him
downhill. He could hear her laughter and her evil song getting closer and closer…..

Peter ran into the cemetery. He had to find a place to hide since he could do nothing to stop
the pumpkin! He saw that there were some tombstones that were big enough for him to hide
behind (game with the tombstone and the black piece of fabric). The children have to try to
hide behind, covering themselves with the piece of fabric so that there is nothing visible. If
they manage to go unnoticed they will win the challenge.

He tried, but he was lying next to a flower that he was allergic to! He had to sneeze. If he
didn’t, he would explode! He tried to hold it but it was coming out and out, so he finally
sneezed. The pumpkin, who had been looking for him among the tombstones, heard that
immediately and went after him again!

Peter stood up and barely managed to escape from the pumpkin’s hand, which was reaching
out to grab him!

- Nooo, stay away! - he cried. And made for a derelict, shabby cottage that stood in the
middle of that field.

He had to defend himself. He stomped through the main door, closed it behind him and
leaned against it to prevent the pumpkin from opening it from the outside. He heard the
heavy footsteps of the pumpkin on the floorboards of the porch. (imitate the sound of the
footsteps). He felt the doorknob turning and he also felt something pushing the door inward.

He leaned against it even harder.

- Go away! - he yelled.

But the pumpkin wouldn’t budge and kept applying pressure on the door. That’s when the
pumpkin got really close to the door and started to sing. Her voice bled through the door in a
sinister way.

- Trick or treeeeaaaaat, smell my feeeeeet, give me something good to eaaaaat…….

That’s when he realised that he had to give the pumpkin something good to eat! That was
what the pumpkin had always wanted! But he had to do it when the pumpkin was somehow
stunned, somehow distracted or shocked, to give him time to feel inside his trick or treat bag
and get a handful of sweets to throw at the pumpkin. He looked around quickly. He saw a
door, which he propped against the doorknob. The door was going to hold, at least
momentarily. He had just enough time to do something that would surprise the pumpkin.

He ran into the kitchen of that abandoned, broken down cottage, and found enough things to
create something shocking! (game with the children, fire in the hand).

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When the moment was right, he kicked the chair away from the door and waited for the
pumpkin to come through.

(game with the children, fire and sweets)

That’s when the pumpkin, having obtained what she wanted, saw the spell vanish. The
magic disappeared. The pumpkin’s glow just died out and fell to the floor.

And Peter felt something strange as well, as if the whole world was spinning around! He
found himself suddenly in bed, because it had all been a dream! A Halloween dream!

Be careful this Halloween with the spooky singing pumpkins!

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was the end of the story. I hope you liked it.

THE END

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