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A few ideas for easy-to-create costumes:
Look at Amazon.com for book cover graphics if you don’t have the book handy.
A letter from Chicka Chicka Boom Boom : a black turtleneck and pants with a big
letter on the front : Black-Eyed P, Skinned-Knee D
Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn: Overalls, straw hat
Junie B Jones Junie B. Has a Peep in her Pocket. Overalls, a wind-up chick and a
straw hat
Amelia Bedelia --apron
Polar Express has pajamas, a robe, and house shoes
101 Dalmatians. Construction paper “spots” on plain clothes and black paper ears
with a red paper collar (get several of your friends to do it too !)
Waldo has a red and white hat and shirt, jeans and brown shoes.
Pippy Longstockings :mismatched clothes and braids
Biographies of famous sports heroes: Baseball and football uniforms
Camouflage for GI Joe, military generals, etc.
Fairies, hobos, pirates, dogs, cats, mouse, Fairy tale, favorite animals, princess
Berenstain Bears father wears overalls and a plaid shirt and brown hat.
Clifford: red sweat shirt and pants
Harriet the Spy, Nate the Great, Cam Jansen, Nancy Drew
Miss Viola Swamp: black dress and black wig.
Mrs. Frizzle from Magic School Bus :dress with wild pattern on it
Fancy Nancy: boas, beads, hat, etc.
Laura Ingalls Wilder—dress and braids
Max from Where the Wild things Are
Pecos Bill, Paul Bunyan, John Henry
Froggy, Anansi, Miss Spider, Ralph S. Mouse
Arthur, D. W.
Franklin
Bunnicula Bunny Ears and Vampire Teeth
Artemis Fowl-slicked back hair and a suit
Harry Potter, Hermione, Professor Snape, etc.
Scooby-Doo, Shaggy, etc.
Dorothy, Tin Man, Lion, Scarecrow, etc.
Mary Poppins- black coat and hat, umbrella
Click, Clack Moo; Cows that type—white clothes, black spots
Ghost and Pete-- sheet
Lilly—red boots and purple dress, purple purse
Piglet, Winnie-the-Pooh, Tigger, etc.
Dr. Seuss characters:
o “Thing 1” or “Thing 2” a red sweat suit, a piece of white felt cut in a circle
and write “Thing 1” on it, a blue wig;
o Daisy-Head Mayzie - just a daisy on top of your head!
o The Cat in the Hat-black clothes, striped hat
o Star-Bellied Sneetches—yellow shirt and blue star;
o Fox in socks : red sweat suit and blue socks and mittens.
I did Junie B. Jones one year. I just wore a t-shirt under a
cardigan that didn't match the bright colored skirt. I also picked
up a pair of brightly colored striped socks at Mighty Dollar and put
my hair in pigtails. The kids loved it. I had a chiropracter
appointment after school that day and as soon as he saw me he
asked, "Are you dressed up like Junie B. Jones?!? I loved reading
those books with my children!!!"
In one of my “former lives,” I was Mother Goose for a day. I wore a long
blue skirt, ruffled white blouse, yellow satin cummerbund, big yellow hat
with a long white feather, and white shoes with wide white ribbons for laces.
Under my arm, I carried a stuffed goose that had a stick inside that made its
head turn whenever I twisted it. (Somewhere I have a pattern for that.) I
carried a basket of plastic eggs that were shared with the children. Inside,
they had treats and nursery rhymes typed on little slips of colored paper. I
read from the classic black and white checked Mother Goose Nursery
Rhyme book that had belonged to my children, and we played some quiztype nursery rhyme games.
I don’t know how my teen students would accept this today, but they sure
liked me in elementary school!
READ DAY Living Literature - Character Dress-Up for Teachers & Staff
Characters taken:
Daisy Buchanan (The Great Gatsby)
The Cat in the Hat
Nancy Drew
Professor McGonagall (Harry Potter)
Shabanu (Shabanu)
E. Hemingway
Female Character Suggestions:
Kissin’ Kate Barlow (Holes) – teacher turned bandit, 1800’s, spiced peaches, red lipstick
Amelia Bedelia – Maid, misinterprets figures of speech as literal
Elizabeth Bennet (Pride and Prejudice) – Edwardian dress
Sarah Bishop (Sarah Bishop) – Colonial Girl
Stargirl Caraway (Stargirl) – freckles, odd clothes, ukulele, bag w/sunflower painted on it
Cinderella or the stepsisters
Wendy Darling (Peter Pan) - nightclothes
Cruella DeVil (101 Dalmations) – any animal print clothing
Grandma Dowdel (A Long Way From Chicago) – frumpy and imposing
Charlotte Doyle (The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle) – girl dressed as a pirate
Eilonwy (The Book of Three, The Black Cauldron) – long red-gold hair, Princess of Llyr
Jane Eyre (Jane Eyre) – English governess
Mrs. Frizlle (Magic Schoolhouse)
Winnie Foster (Tuck Everlasting) – late 1800’s young girl
Dorothy Gale (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz)
Ghost of Christmas Past (A Christmas Carol) Heidi – Alpine outfit
Janie Johnson (The Face on the Milk Carton) – finds her own childhood picture in the “Missing Child”
notice on a milk carton
Karana (Island of the Blue Dolphins) – Chumash Indian (early California)
Mary Lennox (The Secret Garden) – English county girl, carry garden tools
Lisa (Corduroy) – carry around a teddy bear(green overalls & button missing?)
Annie Lockwood (Both Sides of Time) – modern teen travels back in time to the late 1800’s
Cassie Logan (Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry) – 1930’s, fiery temper
Pippi Longstocking – hair in braids, mismatched clothes, striped stockings
Jo March (Little Women) – 1860’s tomboy
Meg March (Little Women) – 1860’s proper young lady
Raggedy Ann –
Sacagawea (Streams to the River, River to the Sea) – Shoshoni Indian
Anne Shirley (Anne of Green Gables) –
Becky Thatcher (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer) – prairie dress
Laura Ingalls Wilder (Little House on the Prairie) – prairie dress and bonnet
The Warden (Holes) – cowboy hat and boots, long fingernails painted blood red
Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Which, and Mrs. Who (A Wrinkle in Time) – old ladies who guide the children in
their journey
Sarah Witting (Sarah, Plain & Tall) – prairie dress, yellow bonnet, grey cat
Hollis Woods (Pictures of Hollis Woods) – carry a drawing notebook with pictures of a family
Male Character Suggestions:
Jess Aarons (The Bridge to Terabithia) – overalls, worn-out sneakers, sketchbook of drawings
Nick Allen (Frindle) – Carry around a bunch of pens and call them “frindles”
Bud Caldwell (Bud, Not Buddy) Billy Coleman (Where the Red Fern Grows) – overalls, silver cup, gold cup, two red-hound dogs
D'Artagnan, Athos, Aramis, and Porthos (The Three Musketeers) Arthur Dent (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe) –electronic book(guide), and hold a small yellow
fish(babel fish) to ear
Professor Dumbledore (Harry Potter) – wizard
Eragon (Eragon) – peasant boy –carry around a blue dinosaur egg
Atticus Finch (To Kill a Mockingbird) – Southern lawyer, glasses
Huck Finn – farm boy attire
Gandalf (The Hobbit) - wizard
Ghosts of Christmas Present/Future (A Christmas Carol) Sam Gribley (My Side of the Mountain) – jeans & plaid shirt, survival equipment, falcon
Frank and Joe Hardy (The Hardy Boys) notebook and magnifying glass
Jim Hawkins (Treasure Island) Sherlock Holmes (The Hound of the Baskervilles) Count Olaf (A Series of Unfortunate Events) Marolo Olivar (Shadow of a Bull) – bullfighter in training
Rob Peck (A Day No Pigs Would Die) – Amish boy
Ponyboy, Johnny, Sodapop, Dally (The Outsiders) – greasers
Harry Potter – wizard, glasses, lightning bolt scar
Brian Robeson (Hatchet) – fake hatchet on belt
Sackett (any Louis L’Amour Sackett novel) – cowboy outfit from the 1800’s
Sam I Am (Green Eggs and Ham) – wear a t-shirt saying that you don’t like green eggs and ham
Santa Claus (The Polar Express) Tom Sawyer – farm boy attire
Seikei (The Ghost in the Tokaido Inn) – Samurai in training
Scipio (The Thief Lord) – black boots, long coat, mask w/long nose, carry a bag of loot
Captain Scratch (The Ghost in the Noonday Sun) Ebenezer Scrooge (A Christmas Carol) Long John Silver (Treasure Island) – pirate, left leg gone, uses one crutch
Dickon Sowerby (The Secret Garden) – English boy, friend to all animals
Taran (The Book of Three, The Black Cauldron) – pig-keeper turned warrior
Thing 1 and/or Thing 2 (The Cat in the Hat) – wear red with wild blue hair
John Thornton (The Call of the Wild) – gold prospector
Train Conductor (The Polar Express) Johnny Tremain (Johnny Tremain) – silversmith apprentice during the Revolutionary War
Jesse Tuck (Tuck Everlasting) – farm attire of the 1800’s, warn people not to drink from the water
fountain
Waldo (Where’s Waldo) – Red and White stripped shirt and cap, glasses
Andrew “Ender” Wiggin (Ender’s Game) – futuristic young military genius
Stanley Yelnats (Holes) – Orange jump suit, shovel
Authors:
Mark Twain – white suit, hair, and moustache