I Need Suggestions for First Graders Halloween Party (Games, Snacks, Crafts)

I'm having a huge Halloween party for the kids at my house, and I found everything I needed at Oriental Trading

http://www.orientaltrading.com

games: pin the nose on the pumpkin, haunted house bean bag toss, etc.

crafts: witch bookmarks, bead necklaces, etc.

They have everything you could want, and it is cheap!

family fun .com has so many fun ideas and great snack options too! Hostess has some too on their web page too, We are doing the spooky eyes made out of donuts. Good Luck Debbie

I made a nice size pumpkin out of construction paper and glued the eyes and mouth but left the nose. I cut out triangle pieces for the nose. Put the children's names on them and then blind folded them (or just had them close their eyes) and had them try to put the nose on the pumpkin (pin the tail on the donkey). To make sure no one was left out I gave the child who placed the nose closest a piece of candy and the rest tattoos or stickers. It's up to you whether you want to give prizes out or not.

You can fill a container (plastic) full of candy corn and have them guess how much candy corn is in the jar. The closest guess gets the candy.

For snacks you can take plastic gloves, the kind you use for serving food. In each finger and thumb area place a candy corn at the end and then fill the rest with popcorn then tie.

You can make individual cups full of crushed oreos and then add gummy worms or other candy.

I used to be a room mom but I have 2 high schoolers and a third grader so I have retired but I still help out with the third grader when I can.

We played a fun racing game that was simple enough for any age group. You start with construction paper cut-outs of pumpkins, leaves, ghosts, etc that are about 4-5 inches across. Pile these randomly on a table with 2 bowls next to them. Form 2 teams and have the children stand behind a "starting line", each child having their own straw. On "go" the first member of each team must walk to the table and suck up the flat side of a paper cutout with their straw and transfer the cut-out to the bowl. (You determine how many each child must do). They then walk back to the line and the next team member goes. If they run, they have to go back and start again. First team finished with the correct amount of cut-outs in the bowl wins.
A fun twist on this game in a different setting is to have the parents on one team and the kids on the other team. Amazingly, the kids almost always win this!

K

Oriental Trading Company has a lot of really cute affordable seasonal crafts. You can check them out online.

You can also make cheap little snowglobes out of baby food jars and little trinkets from a Michael's or Hobby Lobby. You glue the trinket to the inside of the lid (hot glue) and then add water and glitter. Then they decorate the glass and jar lid with ribbon and markers.

For games, my girl scouts always liked Spider In The Web. You pick two "spiders" and then divide the rest of the kids into four groups and let them name their group after a bug. Then put two groups at either side of the room, so two bug groups on each side. Then, the spiders yell 1-4 bug group names (either one at a time, or shake it up and call out 2, 3, or 4 at a time) and those bugs have to run to the other side of the room without getting tagged by a spider. The first two spiders can run all around and try to tag people. If a bug gets tagged, they become a spider, but the new baby spiders can't move their feet -- only hands. They also have to crouch down beacuse they are supposed to be little baby spiders. They can only tag people if they get close to them, which happens if you're playing with a classroom of kids because you end up having new little spider babies everywhere. The last bug standing wins. This was always a huge hit for us.

For snacks, how about something they can do? You can have them frost graham crackers with frosting and then give them a selection of halloween candies to choose from for on top (like Reese's Pieces, etc) and let them make little Halloween Pizzas.

Good luck!

Instead of the biting apple from a string a dounut works well also

The mummy game.
have rolls of TP and pair them up. Race to see who can wrap their partner up in TP like a mummy first.

Pumpkin decorating with recylced materials

From my experience, anything to lively is asking for trouble. They will be hopped up on sugar any way so... A couple of "calm" suggestions would be a fall word search contest and/or a fall coloring contest. A picture of Clifford or a pumpkin would be appropriate. Have fun!

S. :D

Also, the kids like to take pretzel sticks, dip them in a chocolate fondue and then roll them in sprinkles. Yummy snack.

My mom was a room mother that put on parties. I always liked that as a kid.

My mom would take a pumpkin and fancy toothpicks and cut chunks of cheese and fruit and make a face and hair for the pumpkin.

I am not sure about games, but I thought I would give you a good idea. Also, if you wanted to make a chocolate snack, but didn't want to give candy, take a devils food chocolate cake mix and a small can of pumpkin, divide it into cupcake holders and bake according to the box. Frost them with white frosting and put some orange and black sprinkles on top. Or you food coloring to make it orange frosting. By eliminating eggs and oil, it takes out alot of the fat and calories. They are awesome.

Good luck!

Kate

M.,
Take a plastic glove (not a latex glove, more like a food service glove) and put a candy corn in the bottom of each finger, (this is the fingernail) then fill the glove with popped popcorn till its almost full, tie it off with a twistie tie or rubber band and then put a spider ring on one of the fingers.

You could do face painting, paint small pumpkins, bats, ghosts, etc. on the kids faces.

Fill a jar with candy corn and let each child guess how many are in the jar, closest guess wins the candy.

Read a good halloween story.

Play musical chairs using the Theme song to the Adams Family.

Decorate small pumpkins, either with markers or stickers.

Craft idea- Fly Eyes
Cut out 2 parts of a styrofoam egg carton (do not separate them from each other.) Cut holes in the center of the bottom for eye holes. Punch holes at what would be the temples. Attach a chenille stem to each hole for the ear piece. Glue on sequins all over the top for the multiple lens of the fly eyes.
we are doing cider and donuts for snack at my daughter's party. You can also print out Halloween Bingo cards off the web and give cheap prizes- spider rings, Halloween erasers, etc.
good luck

Hi M.,

I am planning my first graders Halloween party too! With all of the food allergies in the classroom, planning is hard!! So if you have any snack ideas that don't include PB, nuts or dairy let me know!!!
For a game, we are playing "penny toss". The kids toss a coin into muffin tins. Each section of the muffin tin has a small toy or piece of candy in it. Wherever their coin lands, they get to keep that prize. It is easy, and they love it!! You can also download Halloween Bingo from several web sights.
Good luck and have fun!!!

Hi, with my kids, we always tried to have a heartier snack since they never feel like eating dinner before trick-or-treating. The most popular is hot dog "mummies" - either get hot dogs or the little smokies and wrap them in canned breadstick dough (like Pillsbury). You bake them for about 11-15 minutes at 375. If you want them to really look like mummies, you can add small pieces of black olives to be the eyes. My family loves these! We've also made spiders out of large beads for the body and pipe cleaners for legs, or use pieces of a feather boa for the body and pipe cleaners. Then add googly eyes. Glue dots work really well for the smaller kids. You can even put the eyes on the glue dots ahead of time and just peel them off of the backing paper and use. Have fun!

Very simple craft

http://www.freekidscrafts.com/lollipop_ghost-e544.html

- Pin the nose on the Jack-o-Lantern
- Ring toss - toss rings around pumpkin/stems instead of bottles
- Decorate cookie for snack (pumpkin shape cookies, let kids frost and decorate)
- Bite the apple from the string - kind of like bobbing for apples, but cleaner and drier. Tie an apple onto a string and hang from something (or hold), kids try to 'catch' the apple by biting it. Much less germy too as each kid has their own apple that they get - whether they catch it or not.
- chalk pictures - orange and white chalk on black (or dark) paper to make pumpkins and ghosts
- pumpkin person - make a large pumpkin (from the larger size construction paper- reg, would work too), strips of orange paper that they are going to fold accordian style to make arms and legs. Glue on arms and legs, have them make hands and feet and glue on. Draw a face on the pumkin. Can add hair, hats, etc. too.
- How many seeds? We always did in small groups. Get sugar pumpkins (not as big and not as many seeds), have them guess how many seeds are in it. Cut open and spoon out seeds. Have them count - graph each groups total. If equipment is available, you can roast the seeds for snack. Add cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, etc for flavor - google 'cook pumpkin seeds' and you will get all kinds of flavor ideas

I know we did more, but I can't think of other ones at the moment. Hopefully this will help get you started.

J.

Just yesterday I did a craft with our Elementary & Jr. High kids at church.

You take a small see-through jar - empty mayo, "balls" canning jars, old candle jar. And you fill it about half way with sand (found in the craft aisle). Stick a votive candle in the middle of the sand (orange or black color for halloween). Drop a few candy corn around it. Then finish it off by tying orange and black ribbon around the neck of the jar.

It's a nice halloween decoration they can take home to Mom or Dad.

You could do cider and doughnuts for snack.

Good luck! You'll have lots of fun with whatever you choose to do.