Holes came out after my childhood. Which is a shame because I love Louis Sachar and as a kid, I read all of the Sideways Stories books, and in junior high, I had a blast figuring out the math problems of Sideways Arithmetic. Louis Sachar’s Holes* came out the year I graduated college. Holes was wildly popular, and a few years later the movie came out, and many elementary school reading teachers were happy because their reading lessons just became easier (every kid loves when there’s a movie for their required reading).
I watched Holes one day when the kids were little I decided to watch the movie, and loved it, for all of its absurdity. I knew someday it’d be fun to watch with them. I was right
(This post contains affiliate links marked with an *)
What is Holes by Louis Sachar about?
Stanley Yelnats has bad luck. His grandfather insists it’s because of his great great grandfather the pig thief. Either way, Stanley’s bad luck has landed him at Camp Greenlake digging holes for 18 months. While at Camp Greenlake he makes “friends” with a unique set of fellow inmates. Can Stanley break his family’s bad luck or will his luck only get worse?
Holes Movie Night snacks
Our snacks were a little unusual for our Holes* movie night. I asked the kids what snacks we needed for watching Holes, they said, “God’s Thumb! Armpit hair! We need something to represent zero.”
So, I did my best to make their ideas come true.
We had Fudge Stripes* for “Zero.” Licorice whips cut up short for “Armpit hair.”
Creamy Jalapeno (bought from a local restaurant, but this recipe is similar) for rattlesnake venom (I should have done yellow lizard venom). The chips represented rattlesnake fangs. Gummy worms* represented the rattlesnakes. That bowl was pretty empty by the end of the movie.
Oreos* opened up with pretzel sticks* were shovels, accompanied by a bowl of “dirt” for each kid to eat. The dirt was chocolate pudding* (I used a mix, but these pudding cups would have been handy) with the other half of the Oreos crumpled up on top of them. They were wildly popular.
As those boys were digging they ran into limestone rocks from time to time, so of course, we had some limestone. Represented by the healthy version with grilled chicken and less healthy version of marshmallows.
For our beverages, we had 2 liters of Coke, Dr Pepper, and Sprite as clean and dirty water. The kids quite approved. If anyone in my family liked peaches it would have made sense thematically to have peaches, but no one would have eaten them, and I was trying to think of a way to get onions in since that’s also a plot point, but I never thought of a good onion treat.
Any suggestions for a good onion snack we could have done for our Holes movie night?
Oh, maybe Funions? My kids don’t really like Funions, so that would be kind of pointless.
More 4th-grade book and a movie nights for you to try after your Holes Movie Night
I love your snack ideas. We have this on our movie list and haven’t gotten to it yet.
Blessings, Dawn
You’ll enjoy it once you see it!
Love this! Pickled pearl onions,but they probably wouldn’t have eaten them either. Your kids are going to remember these movie nights the rest of their lives!
Yeah, I was thinking maybe onion soup, but I’m not sure.
I wonder if my kids would enjoy this book? I started it and it just didn’t appeal to me, but maybe I just needed to read further in.
If they like absurdity they’ll probably like it. It’s one of those books that is quite absurd in the details, and while the nice guy finishes last for so much of the time, in the end it all comes out right.
I don’t think A tried this book. She liked anything by Louis Sachar, so I will point it out to her. Lovely snacks too!
Thanks! The kids had so much fun brainstorming snack ideas this time.
THANK YOU so much for these ideas! We are having a learning experience in my son’s 4th grade class and you definitely steered me in the right direction! Wish I could share a pic with you.
Thanks
If you want, you can email it to me, because I’d love to see it!