Classroom Party for Halloween Oops "Fall Festival"

Check out this website, they have very nice ideas for crafts and kids seasonal activities.

http://familyfun.go.com/autumn/fall-crafts/best-fall-craf...

Can you make a scarecrow? We made one last year with my class and it was too cute. We stuffed it with crinkled paper in plastic bags and used a two wooden rods or sticks attached together like a T shape. Dressed the sticks (button shirt and overalls) and filled it with the bags. Then we made another bag, gave it a face, placed it on top and used a straw hat. Too cute! You could also use a pumpkin for the head.
We also made corn crafts, yellow paper ovals and green ovals cut in half for the leaves. They glued it together at the bottom and finger painted the kernels on the yellow paper. Also cute.
Another idea is to make Fall crowns with leaves. Strips of paper make the base (brown or orange) and have them glue/tape real or paper leaves, then staple it like a head piece for each child.
If you have plenty of leaves, do a leaf scavenger hunt hiding leaves all around the room with the colors of Fall. Choose a special color (gold or burgundy) and give prizes for those who find the magical fall leaf. :)

Have fun!

A couple of art projects my kids have brought home:

1: "Thumb-kin" patch. Take their thumbs, put orange paint on them and allow them to make thumb prints all over a paper. Then have them draw little brown stems and green leaves.

2: Fall Leaves: Have them draw/paint a large empty brown tree trunk with lots of branches. Then dip the tips of their fingers in orange, red and yellow paint and "dot" leaves onto their branches.

When my kids were in K, the classes made scarecrows (FALL, not Halloween!): parents sent in old clothing which we stuffed with hay outside, & pumpkins for the heads - messy, but the parents will help clean up. Michael's or JoAnn Etc. have mini leaf-shaped cookie cutters - cut different-colored cheeses (yellow cheddar, white provolone or Havarti, marbled Colby Jack) into leaf shapes. Apple tasting contest: Granny Smith vs. Red Delicious vs. Golden Delicious & chart what the fav is. Anything with Foamies (Michael's/JoAnn MUST have pumpkin foamies for decorating) - get googly eyes, glitter glue & pipe cleaners for the vine. HAVE FUN!

They could ink their handprints on two sides to make bat wings, then glue a circle in the middle and decorate it like a bat. So cute!
Painting pumpkins is good too. They could color over leaves to make leaf imprints. That's always fun.

I teach second grade and we also are not allowed to call it Halloween. I usually ask for donations of different sized pumpkins, bags of pumpkin seeds and pumpkin candies. I use these items to work on math/science type activities that use the pumpkins. We estimate/weigh the pumpkins, estimate/count pumpkin seeds, use the pumpkin candies to estimate/measure some lines on a paper. We also use yarn to estimate/measure the circumference of the different sized pumpkins. It is set up like a center rotation. I also get a bowl and some cornstarch & food coloring and we make "goop". It makes a mixture that is liquid in your hand but turns more solid when the heat from your hand is added. The kids actually LOVE doing these explorations and we don't get in trouble because it is all math & science related. Depending on help and time, you could also take one of the larger pumpkins and clean it out, estimating the amount of seeds inside. Then if there is access to an oven, roast pumpkin seeds for the kids to try. Not really art and craft type activities but the kids realy do have fun! Good Luck!

What about making things out of clay (ummmm, yeah that is messy too). Or making spider webs out of cotton and making a spider to place on it.