The Chocolate Chip Ghost

"Something dreadful has happened!"

This was one of my favorite stories growing up and I had to make this for my Mommy and Me class and share with my own boys...I found this version online, but you can improvise when you retell the story.  I cut out one mommy ghost and 5 smaller ghosts - one side white and glued another color on the back.  When I tell the story, I flip over the ghosts.  (It is fun to enjoy some chocolate chip ghost cookies at the end!)

Mommy ghost and her 5 white ghosts

Once upon a time, there lived 5 little ghosts and a Mama ghost. As everyone knows, ghosts are white.  The only thing they can eat is vanilla ice cream and the only thing that they can drink is milk. One day when Mama ghost went to the refrigerator, there was no vanilla ice cream and no milk. So she had to go to the grocery store and before she left she said, “No matter how hungry you get, do not eat  anything or something dreadful will happen.” The first ghost became so thirsty and he looked in the refrigerator and saw a little glass of grape juice and thought, “just one teeny sip wouldn’t hurt.” So he took a one teeny sip of grape juice and what do you think happened? He turned purple! The other ghosts looked at him and said “Mama told us that something dreadful would happen and she was right.”  The second ghost became so hungry and he looked in the refrigerator and saw an orange and thought, “just one teeny bite wouldn’t hurt.” So he took a one teeny bite of the orange and what do you think happened? He turned orange! The other ghosts looked at him and said “Mama told us that something dreadful would happen and she was right.”  The third ghost became so hungry and he looked in the refrigerator and saw a banana and thought, “just one teeny bite wouldn’t hurt.” So he took a one teeny bite of spinach and what do you think happened? He turned yellow! The other ghosts looked at him and said “Mama told us that something dreadful would happen and she was right.” The fourth ghost became so hungry and he looked in the refrigerator and saw a bowl of strawberries and thought, “just one teeny bite wouldn’t hurt.” So he took a one teeny bite of a strawberry and what do you think happened? He turned red! The other ghosts looked at him and said “Mama told us that something dreadful would happen and she was right.”  The fifth ghost said, “I’m so hungry but I will not do what my brothers did.  I’ll look in the freezer and see if there is just maybe a little vanilla ice cream left.”  When he looked in the freezer there was some ice cream and it was almost vanilla – it was white with little brown pieces of chocolate in it. So the ghost said, “This shouldn’t hurt me – those pieces of  chocolate are so tiny.” So he ate one spoonful and became a chocolate chip ghost! They were all so scared of getting in trouble they hid behind the door! When Mama ghost returned, she knew something was wrong when she didn’t see her children, so she started looking for the little ghosts. When she found all of them, she said, “Little ghosts, I told you that something dreadful would happen and it did.” Whatever can we do to get you white again for Halloween? She called the ghost doctor and this is  what he told her to do. Keep all the little ghosts in bed for five days and give them nothing but vanilla  ice cream and milk and they should be ready for Halloween. So that is what she did and by Halloween night, the five little ghosts were all white again to go out haunting and spooking and shouting “BOO!” And they never again ate something they shouldn’t.

*There are so many versions of this story, you can have the ghosts go hide behind something, have a different number of ghosts or have them eating different kinds of food.