Ghosts!

GHOST ARTS, CRAFTS, AND ACTIVITIES (and Cupcakes)

	From PBS, Glowing Ghost Jugs has instructions for making ghostly lanterns from plastic milk bottles.
	From DLTK, Ghastly Ghost Crafts has printable decorate-a-ghost sheets, instructions for making a footprint ghost, a ghost-and-pumpkin wreath, a ghost paper chain, and more.
	Among the Activities for Halloween at Enchanted Learning are making a balloon ghost and a pop-up ghost card.
	Learn how to make paper Ghost Streamers with this You Tube video.
	Make Spooky S’Mores Bars. You’ll need ghost-shaped Peeps.
	From Artists Helping Children, Ghost and Ghoul Crafts for Kids has instructions for many, among them a ghost flashlight cover, paper spiral ghosts, floating glow-in-the-dark ghosts, and squash ghosts.
	Activity Village’s list of Ghost Crafts includes a felt ghost toy, ghost puppets, and a recipe for ghost brownies.
	Edible Ghost Craft Ideas lists recipes for dozens, among them meringue ghost cookies, haunted house sandwiches, and glow-in-the-dark ghost cupcakes.
	From Primary Games, in Ghost Hunt kids click on features of a haunted house scene to find the ghost.

GHOSTS IN THE MOVIES

	Casper the Friendly Ghost was created as a cartoon character in the 1930s; he’s also the star of the movie Casper (1995), in which an “after-life therapist” and his daughter move into a haunted mansion. There they meet the friendly Casper and his three very unfriendly uncles. Rated PG.
	In The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947), a young widow goes to live in Gull Cottage on the British seacoast, where she meets the ghost of its former owner, Captain Daniel Gregg – and the unlikely pair fall in love. With Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison.
	In Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice (1988), ghosts Adam and Barbara are doing their best to evict obnoxious human owners from their home. They get no help from the Handbook for the Recently Deceased or the bureaucrats who dominate the afterlife, and so end up calling upon Beetlejuice, a crazy and unreliable ghoul in a striped suit. With Geena Davis, Alec Baldwin, and (as Beetlejuice) Michael Keaton. Rated PG.
	In Ghostbusters (1984), three unemployed parapsychology professors start a ghost-removal service. All goes well until a ghostly voice in a client’s refrigerator proves to involve a portal to another world and Gozer, an ancient Sumerian god of destruction. With Bill Murray, Dan Ackroyd, Harold Ramis, Sigourney Weaver, and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. Rated PG.
	In Field of Dreams (1989), Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella – urged on by a mysterious voice (“If you build it, he will come”) – builds a baseball diamond in his field and finds it visited by the ghosts of Shoeless Joe Jackson and the Chicago White Sox players who were banned from the game for throwing the 1919 World Series. With Kevin Costner, Amy Madigan, Burt Lancaster, and James Earl Jones. A real heart-warmer. Rated PG.
	In Blithe Spirit (1945), the film adaptation of the witty play by Noel Coward, Charles Condamine and his second wife, Ruth, are plagued by the ghost of his first wife, Elvira, who wants Charles back.
	In Topper (1937), fun-loving (and reckless-driving) Marion and George Kirby die in a car crash and end up haunting their somewhat stuffy friend, bank president Cosmo Topper. With Cary Grant and Constance Bennett as ghosts.
	In Disney’s The Watcher in the Woods, an American family moves into a house in rural England where the two daughters see strange lights in the woods and begin to see and hear a teenager named Karen, who vanished 30 years before. The explanation, as it turns out (spoiler!) is an alien and another dimension, not ghosts. But it feels like ghosts. Rated PG.
	In High Spirits (1988), Peter Plunkett’s Irish castle is in deep financial trouble, so he decides to fake a haunting to whip up interest from American tourists. Which works – and then real ghosts move in. With Peter O’Toole as Plunkett. Rated PG-13.
	The swashbuckling Pirates of the Caribbean (2003) features the ghostly pirate ship, the Black Pearl, and a lot of cursed undead pirates. With Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Orlando Bloom, and Keira Knightley. Rated PG-13.
	In Ghost (1990), Sam is murdered in a mugging but stays behind as a ghost, trying to protect his girlfriend, Molly, from danger. Molly can’t see him; he can only communicate with her through a startled psychic who had never believed her powers were real. With Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore, and Whoopie Goldberg. Rated PG-13.
	Directed by M. Night Shyamalan, Sixth Sense centers around a young boy who can see and talk to ghosts who don’t realize that they’re dead. Rated PG-13.
	In The Others (2001), Grace Stewart lives in a mansion on the island of Jersey with her two oddly photosensitive children while waiting for her husband to return home from World War II. Soon strange happenings lead Grace to believe that the house is haunted – which it is, but not in the way that you expect. With Nicole Kidman. Rated PG-13.