Halloween Spooktacular!

"Witch and ghost make merry on this last of dear October's days."

The week was a blur as we all returned from fall break and I steamrolled into my Dia de los Muertos week. So when Stamford's Halloween Spooktacular event arrived on Friday, we were at once surprised and ready!

I volunteered a good bit of my time for the Halloween Spooktacular event because I felt like it would be a great avenue to practice various creative activities and I knew it would make the students really happy.  

So on the Sunday morning after I returned from the Philippines, I spent about 1/2 a day at school painting a smallish mural on the glass windows that peek down onto our pool. I mixed tempera paint with dish soap and went to town.  The heat and humidity in Singapore make these types of projects a bit more challenging, especially since tempera paint is prone to cracking. The mural stayed up for a week before the event and we all decided to embrace the cracking, since it made for a spookier feeling! The kids loved it!

I also did the make-up for several faces appearing in our haunted corridor. My primary face of interest was the zipper face, which you can see me practicing on my leg below. It's super-gross, but the pay off is HUGE! It definitely wins the prize for goriest make-up trick, slasher pic image-of-the-week!

I also practiced making scabs using layers of skin built up with liquid latex. This was very fun, but it took a little bit of time because you have to let the layers of skin dry in between coats. I haven't done anything related to Halloween or dressing up in years . . . This was a much-needed break to my normal routine.

The haunted corridor ended up being pretty scary. (Or at least I thought it was, and I was working on it.) Below see one of the dad's as a spooky vampire . . . There's a body laying in front of him. Creepy. I shot this image after finishing make-up, right before the kids starting piling in.



As I was leaving, everyone was high on sugar and running around on the soccer field like crazy people. It was hilarious! I love this action shot of Luke Skywalker in a mad chase.

According to attendees of this year's Halloween Spooktacular, it was a great night! 

"The level of creativity and dedication displayed by our community is truly amazing. Congratulations to everyone for the fantastic work!"

"Fab night and the kids loved it all. Very impressive Halloween."  

I'll be able to gauge a real response when I speak to the kids on Monday. 

Since I wasn't able to go to school in costume, I told my students that I would dress up, photograph myself, and show them what I looked like next week.  So--in the spirit of Day of The Dead--I dressed as my version of La Catrina.

Oddly enough, dressing up was not as weird and awkward feeling as I had previously thought it would be. I may actually do this again. For real next time.