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You are probably familiar with the story Stone Soup. Recently JDaniel and I checked the story Bone Soupout of the library. It has a very similar theme. A traveler comes into town hoping to find someone who will give him some food. Word of the traveler and their appetite have preceded their arrival in the town.  Through wise thinking and a desire  by the town’s people to make the best bone soup the whole town ends up with a hearty dinner. We created Halloween crafts to go along with this wonderful tale. We used it for retelling. I think it would be great for a variety of activities.

Halloween Crafts-Egg Carton Skeleton

The first craft was an egg carton skeleton. The skeleton was made using only the parts of one gray cardboard egg carton.  Yep! Just one egg carton was used to create the whole skeleton.

Cutting Out the Skeleton’s Body

Let me walk you through which part of the egg carton was used to create each body part:

• Skull- Two full egg cups and two egg cups connected to them cut diagonally.  The lower egg cups were cut down to create the skeleton’s jaw.
• Shoulders- Each shoulder was cut from the indentions on the top of the egg carton.
• Arms- Each arm as cut from the top flap of the egg carton. Each arm came from the outside edge of that flap.
• Chest- Four eggs cups form the chest. Slits were cut in the side of the egg cups to create the ribs. Actually four slits were cut into each side of the rib cage.
• Legs- Each leg comes from the bottom flap of the egg carton. The flap with the nubs that you put through the top flaps holes to keep the carton closed.
• Hand and Feet- The hands and feet were cut out of top  section of the carton that doesn’t open.

The various parts of the skeleton were cutout free hand. You might want to cut a hand or foot print pattern and trace them onto the carton. Kids could cut out all the parts on their own if they are great with scissors. If you are working with younger children, you will want to cut out the rib cage for them.

Making The Skeleton’s Body White

When all the all the skeleton’s body parts were  cut out, the skeleton was painted white with tempera paint. The egg carton is so porous it just absorbs the paint. Only one coat of paint was applied to a grey cardboard egg carton to make it white.

Playing with the Skeleton

During the story the skeleton named Finnigin looks forward to arriving in the town and getting a great meal. The skeleton’s arms can be arrange so that it looks like he is looking ahead and thinking about a meal.

Finnigin tries to get someone to open their door and feed off his hunger, but he does’t have any door open for him. He finally decides to set up his cooking pot and get it boiling with water.

A young werewolf volunteers who has various soup making ingredients like bat wings. The skeleton can  be arrange so that he has one hand raised.

In the end they all end up with a wonderful meal.

I have paraphrased the story to show you various ways the various parts of the Halloween crafts’ arms can be move to retell the story. You are going to want to read the story in its entirety. It is really wonderful.

Halloween Crafts- Bone Soup

The various soup ingredients can be cut out of construction paper ahead of time and children can add them to their paper soup bowls.  Children could also cut out their own ingredients to add to their soup bowls.

Some of the ingredients mentioned in the story are:

• Bat wings
• Eyeballs
• Frog’s legs
• Dandelions
• Toenails
• The bone

What are some other activities you could do with this egg carton skeleton? Leave me a comment below sharing your kid friendly activities.