Does your school have a policy on Halloween costumes?
Categories: Holidays
Last year, when my then four-year-old decided to be a scary witch for Halloween, I said, "Right on." We love Halloween at our house, and she was getting right into the spirit. We weren't surprised, however, to hear that though her parochial preschool would be having a costume party, scary or occult-type costumes wouldn't be allowed. We planned early on to put her in the previous year's pirate costume instead. Problem solved, until a teacher's assistant, who asked her what she was going to be for Halloween, told her in no uncertain terms that she would not be allowed to come to the party as a witch. I didn't disagree with the rule, but it bothered me that she was made to feel bad about her choice of costume outside of school.
What made it worse was that when we finally attended the party, it was decorated completely in traditional Halloween decor -- witches, monsters, and all. She was confused, and I didn't have a good answer for her.
Fast forward to this year, different school, same rule. This year, she wants to be a bat. I think that we should just put her back into the pirate costume or a princess dress for school and not even deal with it. My husband, on the other hand, says bats are just a part of nature and aren't "scary." (He's obviously didn't notice my reaction when one flew out of our chimney last year.)
The thing is, I think the policy is a good one. There are some really gruesome costumes out there, many of which aren't appropriate for a school setting, and plenty that would scare the smaller children in the building. And the fact that they have a costume party at all sets them apart from most of the schools in our area. Still, I never knew Halloween would cause me so much angst.
What about you? Does your child's school throw a Halloween party? What's their policy on Halloween costumes?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Sabrina 10-02-2008 @ 10:22AM
Our daughter's preschool, and her previous preschool both didn't celebrate Halloween, but celebrate Harvest or Fall. We haven't ever been allowed to send her in a costume. We wore them when I was in school, even scary ones. The only people who ever got in trouble were the ones who came in something skimpy.
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Paul Cyopick 10-02-2008 @ 11:08AM
The only thing not allowed at school for my kids are masks, since they want to know who is who, and toy weapons (light sabres, toy guns etc.). All very reasonable I think.
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Shelly 10-02-2008 @ 11:23AM
Our school prohibits masks which I find to be totally appropriate. The kindergarteners all make their own costumes and wear them at a "Fall Walk" that the school holds for the parents. Each class makes costumes based on a book they are reading. I think this is a great idea! It also helps for those kids who are not able to afford a costume or bring one in for whatever reason (parent forgets, etc...).
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Jenni 10-02-2008 @ 11:35AM
Preschool professional here. We have a pajama-rama day. All the children come to school in their pajamas, they bring their favorite book to read, they do a "breakfast for lunch" cooking project (scrambled eggs or pancakes or waffles etc...), they make graphs on things like "your favorite stuffed animal", they practice wearing and looking at others wear masks.
This last one is important because they need to understand that when they go out trick or treating, there will be people wearing these "scary" masks and that it's just pretend. At this age, their concept is that that mask is a seperate person; even a Dora mask can be scary to a child.
This is as far as I will delve into the Halloween scene during school hours. I have had the "Fall Festival" after hours where families can choose to come and participate. However, my reason for not doing Halloween is not because I don't want to offend anyone. My reason for not doing Halloween is because school is a time for LEARNING.
The activities we do on this day and every other day are based on curriculum. The chidlren don't lose out by not getting to wear their costumes. The only reason I choose to do pajama day on Halloween is because, if I didn't, I would have at least a quarter of the class show up in costume. I trump that with the pajamas.
I also have other theme days through out the year where the entire curriculum circles around one theme: Stone Soup day, Teddy Bear Picnic Day, etc... Pajama day would happen on another day, but it cuts off so many other problems that would come up is I didn't have it on this day.
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windex 10-02-2008 @ 1:17PM
My daughter's school allows no costumes at all. They have a wear orange and black day on Halloween. I think they do it this way in order to avoid all the rules and where to draw that line..they focus most of the educational stuff on fall/harvest.
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hall monitor 10-02-2008 @ 8:15PM
A lot of school are moving away from a traditional "Halloween costume party," and having what they call "Character Parades." Basically the students are only allowed to dress up like a (non disruptive) character from a book or movie. Nothing that even appears violent is acceptable.
Hall Monitor
http://detentionslip.org
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twinmomV 10-06-2008 @ 10:10PM
We have a character parade as well. Our kids also have to carry a book in the parade to match the costume. Can you imagine what it's like a the local library the day before the parade?
Last year one of my girls was Dorothy and lost her copy of the Wizard of Oz. Spend 30 minutes with the librarian to find something. Of course everything had already been checked out. I saw more moms at the library that night than you'd see at 5 PTA meetings.
Jen Henry 10-02-2008 @ 10:25PM
Our local school allows no costumes or celebrations. They do loosely celebrate fall. As an elementary teacher myself (not in this district) I do have to say that I don't think a single day of Halloween celebrations are going to affect school curriculum drastically. Even if you banned costumes and focused on fall lessons for the day the students would still know it was Halloween and that once the day was over they'd be able to don their costumes and celebrate. It would be very difficult to teach anything that day that you wanted to actually stick with the students longer than a day. You could still tie elements of the day into lessons, math, science, english. Why not allow the students to have a day that they enjoy school?
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isisaquaria 10-03-2008 @ 1:46AM
My kids school does not have a Halloween party, but allows for treat bags if desired---however, my children do not attend school on the actual day- as it is a religious holiday for me and I choose to have them with me. My husband doesn't work that day either. We spend the day together, and the night having a blast.
We actually start the weekend before and this yr it will be three parties over two weekends and I lost count on the $$ but I had approx $1,000 put back as a start. I had to laugh at the cost listed for the blog---that wouldn't even buy a costume for one of my four kids. Even making our own cost more than that---
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wolf62 10-07-2008 @ 9:24AM
awh, that's sad, when I was in school we had Halloween parties every year, 'room Mothers' would bring in special Halloween treats, all the kids would dress up, I even remember my Kindergarten teacher dressed as a witch! nobody died, nobody fainted from someones creepy scary costume, I never heard anyone complain. Personally I think it's sad kids today don't get to experiance things like most of their parents had. Just think, some kids are scared of a Santa Claus, you don't help them get over that by eliminating them from the festivities.
So much protection from everything, all the fun stuff is disapearing.
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