This terrifying (and evidently amusing) tale has captured the imaginations of our first grade students.
Ever since we read it to them last week they have been acting it out on the playground, building the drowsy, dreamy landscape of Sleepy Hollow in the block area and asking over and over to borrow my only copy of the book (we read the Step Into Reading version). The names Ichabod Crane, Katrina Van Tassel and Brom Bones are uttered on a daily basis.
So, when it came time to think of a pumpkin decorating idea for our school's annual pumpkin contest it came as no surprise that the children wanted a Headless Horseman pumpkin. Hmmm...what would that look like? After some experimentation it was decided that we would keep the pumpkin itself rather simple (painted midnight blue to resemble Ichabod's midnight encounter at the church bridge and an image of the Headless Horseman) but create a book to accompany our pumpkin.
The book is below. The drawings and text are fully credited to our first grade class. It is interesting to see which bits really stood out for them.
Happy Halloween!
