By BRIANA HARRIS / Staff Writer

PELHAM – The Arc of Shelby County’s Tales for Tots Fall Festival is offering educational fun for children this Halloween.

The festival, which is free to attend and open to the community, will feature an interactive reading of the book “Five Silly Pumpkins.”

The event will be Oct. 28 from 10-11 a.m. at the Arc of Shelby County, 203 Amphitheater Road.

Jenny Terrell, service coordinator for the early intervention program, said there will also be games, arts and crafts, prizes, a photo booth and snacks. The Arc hosts story time on the last Friday of every month, with the events being themed for Halloween and Christmas.

“We want all of the kids to wear their Halloween costumes and the staff will be in costumes, too,” she said.

Terrell said the event is geared toward children from birth to 5 years old, but parents who have older children are welcomed to bring them also.

“We start off with three short songs and then we read the book,” she said. “Sometimes we use Velcro pictures and during a certain point in the story and let the children fill in the blank with the picture.”

Terrell said there will be a Spanish language interpreter present to help with interactions with Hispanic families.

“We make sure that all of the activities are developmentally appropriate and we try to give parents different ideas about what they can do at home during story time,” she said. “We’ve seen a lot of progress with children who come to story time consistently.”