I was reminded of this story by my friend, Meagan. We told this over and over again when we were teaching together. I honestly have no idea who I learned it from, I'm thinking it was in a college class a million years ago! All you need is some colored paper and white paper. You don't even need to put them on puppet sticks, just makes them easier to hold. Cut out a colored ghost and a white ghost together and glue them together back to back, so one side is colored and one side is white. I drew happy faces on the white side and surprised faces on the colored side. I am telling you, the kids will want this one over and over again. I told it 3 times in a row yesterday. It just never gets old. So this is how I tell it, obviously, you can use whichever colors and foods you want.
Once upon a time, there lived a family of ghost. The mommy ghost needed to go to the grocery store to buy some more white food. Ghost only eat white food such as, mashed potatoes, milk, vanilla ice cream, yogurt, cauliflower....(what ever other white food you or the kids think of). She warned the ghosts not to eat any food that wasn't white while she was gone.
So the ghost went outside to play. While outside, one of the ghost found a strawberry in the garden. "One little strawberry will be okay," said the first little ghost. Hold up the red ghost so the kids only see the white side. So she popped the strawberry in her mouth and POP, she turned red. Turn around the ghost and show the kids the red side. OHHH NO, and she floated away to hide.
The next ghost found a blueberry in the garden and popped it in his mouth without even thinking about it. Whoops, he turned bright blue, then he floated away to hide.
The next ghost was very hungry. He didn't want to turn blue or red like the other ghost. He found some broccoli and it looked so delicious that he couldn't help himself. So he gobbled up that broccoli and POP, he turned green. He floated away to hide.
The next ghost had been playing so hard and was very thirsty. Mommy had told them not to EAT anything, so maybe it would be okay to have a drink. So she drank a nice glass of orange juice. POP! She was orange!
The last ghost thought about it very carefully. He was hungry, but didn't want to turn any color....he was happy being white. So, he found some chocolate chip ice cream. "It is mostly white," he thought. So, he ate a whole bowl of chocolate chip ice cream. POP! He turned chocolate chip!! Oh my goodness, and he flew away to hide with his brothers and sisters.
When the mommy ghost came home and saw her colored ghost (Hold up all the ghost, colored side out), she knew what had happened. She gave them all a big glass of nice white milk and sent them to bed. When they woke up in the morning, they were all nice and ghostly white again (hold up the ghost white side out).
That is how I tell it. I would love to hear if you have a different version or if you tell this story too!
Thank you Meagan for the reminder!
