School Halloween activities kept after hours

Fall festivals replace past costume parades

Friday, Oct. 30, 2009

That does not mean, however, that those costumes are collecting dust.

Calvert Elementary School Principal Laurie Haynie said that she has seen Halloween evolve throughout her 20 years in the education field.

Haynie said that once it was almost standard for schools to have Halloween parades during the day, with kids in costume collecting candy.

Now, Haynie said, "We have more and more students who don't participate in Halloween."

So Haynie said Calvert tries to give all students the best of both worlds with a non-Halloween related Fall Festival, which was held during the day yesterday, and a PTA sponsored "Trunk or Treat" activity tonight.

"You just have to find a way to create balance and this gives parents choices," Haynie said, describing Trunk or Treat as a more traditional Halloween activity, where students will collect candy from parent volunteers' trunks and end the night with more nutritious refreshments and the movie, "The Wizard of Oz."

"Kids will definitely be in costume," Haynie said of the optional nighttime activity, adding that parents will be there and have full control of which items their children select from the various trunks.

Huntingtown Elementary is also holding a PTA sponsored "Trunk or Treat" tonight, in addition to an elaborate "Harvest Day" today and a fifth grade "Homecoming" soccer game yesterday, featuring a black team and an orange team.

The Harvest Day is particularly elaborate, said Huntingtown Elementary School Principal Ramona Crowley, with each grade having its own theme and going through numerous rotations including arts and crafts, stories and pumpkin decorating.

"We do a lot here," said Crowley, who added that the "Trunk or Treat" is particularly popular.

"We had to take reservations this year because we couldn't fit everybody," Crowley said.

Toni Chapman, principal of St. Leonard Elementary School, said her school is also taking time to celebrate both Halloween and the autumn season, with a "Monster Mash Ball," on Friday, Oct. 23, and a Fall Festival, which will be next Friday, Nov. 6.

Both evening activities are PTA-sponsored, said Chapman, who explained that despite its Halloween-oriented title, costumes were not required for the "Monster Mash."

"Some did, some didn't," she said of students who opted to take on an alter ego for the evening.

Today, Chapman said, "Some teachers may have small parties in their classrooms, but not with costumes.

" … We just want to make sure that everything we do in school is something parents feel comfortable with their children participating in," she said.

And a few elementary schools said that while they choose not to acknowledge Halloween, their students do have an opportunity to put their costumes to good use.

Plum Point Elementary School Principal Joyce King said that while her school does not address Halloween directly, there was a PTA sponsored Family Fun Dance last Friday at which students could wear a costume.

"Just about everyone did [wear a costume]," said King of the dance, which featured food, a DJ and a silent auction for parent attendees.

Mutual Elementary School in also not directly addressing Halloween during the day, said the school's secretary Pat Gilbert, who continued that the school was having a PTA sponsored fall festival tonight, at which students are allowed to wear costumes.

lbuck@somdnews.com