St. Paul Second-Graders Give Ellen Halloween Costume Tips

ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) -- Choosing the perfect Halloween costume can take a lot of thought. A class from West St. Paul thought they'd help Ellen DeGeneres choose hers for this year, and some of them are awfully unique.

Ellen featured some of the ideas from Ms. Maczko's second grade class from Moreland Arts & Health Sciences Magnet School in Wednesday's show.

"I think she should be a chicken, because some chickens have blonde hair like her," one of the students wrote.

If you ask a second grader for Halloween costume ideas, they have plenty. One suggested Ellen dress up as a baby chipmunk. But why?

"Because they're cute," she said. "And they're also cute when they shove corn in their mouth."

It began as a lesson in writing for Tiffany Maczko's class, and turned into an entire book of suggestions for the daytime TV talk show star.

"I just wanted them to be proud of their writing," Maczko said. "I don't think a lot of time students realize that other people will see their writing and see their work."

So she decided to leave it for Ellen last week after she was an audience guest, but she never knew Ellen would like the book enough to share with the world.

"This is really sweet, I'll say before I show it to you," Ellen said on Wednesday's broadcast. "A second grade class from Minnesota made me a book full of costume ideas."

"They were just so excited that she read their work," Maczko said.

Ellen read not one, but three pages of it on her show.

Maczko said when she was giving the kids instructions on the book, she told them to be careful and neat so Ellen could read their handwriting. When she gave the news to her class that the book would be on Ellen, one of her students said "See! Good thing we had nice handwriting!"