Transcript
R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps: The Ultimate Teacher’s Tool
R.L. Stine scares kids for a living, but he also teaches them. For decades, he’s delighted teachers and students with his humor, humility, and understanding of the common obstacles young people face.
Night of the Living Dummy
About the Book: A dummy enters Lindy’s and Kris’ lives, and what starts as fun soon turns weird, nasty, and evil.
Lesson Learned: Competition is healthy if everyone is growing and having fun. Use this story to highlight the importance of teamwork.
Classroom Activity: Have your students point out some of their favorite descriptors, like eerie, shadowy, and bloodcurdling.
The Ghost Next Door
About the Book: A strange, pale boy moves in next door to Hannah. He disappears for hours at a time, and his house is empty. Does Hannah have a ghost for a neighbor?
Lesson Learned: Perhaps Stine’s most emotional story. Expand on the take-away that not everything is as it appears to be.
Classroom Activity: Have students come up with their own alternative twist endings to existing stories.
The Werewolf of Fever Swamp
About the Book: Something evil comes from Fever Swamp, and it’s howling. Grady is in quite a jam: How do you convince the town that your dog isn’t a werewolf?
Lesson Learned: Students can learn the importance of having all the facts before jumping to conclusions.
Classroom Activity: Play a detective-style game where one student is secretly chosen to hold a small object and others try to figure out who has it.
Welcome to Dead House
About the Book: Dark Falls is a weird town, but the house Amanda and Josh just moved into is even weirder. Soon, they realize things may be darker than they thought.
Lesson Learned: The book focuses on the importance of working together, particularly with people you don’t agree with.
Classroom Activity: Make a list of vocabulary words from each chapter. Go over the definitions and quiz your students.
The Haunted Mask
About the Book: It’s Halloween, and Carly Beth has the scariest mask on the block. But it’s almost November 1, and the mask won’t come off.
Lesson Learned: It’s important to encourage children to express themselves authentically to let the best parts of their personality shine through.
Classroom Activity: Have your students illustrate the major plot points or have them create a story board for a specific chapter.
Monster Blood
About the Book: Evan gets some cool, green slime called Monster Blood while visiting his weird great-aunt Katheryn. It was fun at first, but now it won’t stop growing. And eating.
Lesson Learned: Use this loose metaphor as the framework for how what you put in your body can affect your health and safety.
Classroom Activity: Give your students a list of junk food and have them describe how these things can become their own version of monster blood.
Use this Halloween to teach your students valuable lessons by using Goosebumps. Teacher beware: it may not be the best idea to read some of these nightmarish tales right before bed.