[edwood saucer]

We are thinking about having a halloween party for the neighborhood kids who's ages range from 5-14. For the most part - the kids all get along well and have a lot of fun together. It would probably be 30 kids.

We have a huge garage and are going to put all our halloween stuff in there and try to keep the kids corralled outside as opposed to inside.

Since this is our first time trying this - we are looking for ideas on keeping the kids busy, advice from folks who might have done it before - and anything anyone can think of.

Thanks!

 

[Frighteners Entertainment]

Scavenger hunts.

 

[edwood saucer]

Yeah - I will investigate them - my wife said the same thing - I really don't know how they work - and there are a few houses that need to be avoided - but I will research them.

I was thinking about making a pinata too - as opposed to buying one.

 

[slimy]

Since the kiddos are young, I'd tone down the liquor. No more then one or two drinks each. ( just kidding- don't lynch me)


If you want games : throw a 'pumpkin' ( a jack-o-lantern face magic markered on an orange) into a bucket four feet away. Or make a ring toss board with blucky bones attached to the sticks that the rings will go over. Or set pumpkins up and have an obstacle course race around the pumpkins. I second what FE said about the scavenger hunt, that will be fun. Have prizes ( all kids LOVE to win prizes).

What about a craft project? Precut small styro tombstones and let the kids decorate them and take them home. Or make ghosts out of kleenex or something simple like that.


Good luck.

 

[heresjohnny]

edwood, some games that have been a lot of fun in some of our previous parties include hiding lots of candy in a pile of hay and letting the kids dive in and find as much as they can; setting up some plastic jack o lanterns and awarding prizes for tossing bean bags in; filling buckets with stuff like plastic worms (for fishing) etc and digging through to find a prize, musical chairs with Halloween songs; and pin the wart on the witches nose;

 

[Beth]

Call me old fashioned (or old) but bobbing for apples is a LOT of fun and very difficult to actually do!! Sometimes the oldies are the best......

 

[Frighteners Entertainment]

Call me old fashioned (or old) but bobbing for apples is a LOT of fun and very difficult to actually do!! Sometimes the oldies are the best......

A fun way for this is to have the apples in the rum punch!
I'm sure that's what you meant?? LOL

 

[Beth]

Of COURSE!!!

 

[Ms. Wicked]

I would break the kids down into age appropriate groups. Sometimes it can be tricky getting a group of kids with a wide age difference to participate in the same activities. Some groups can rotate between stations, and others can be spcifically for the real little ones who need more hands on co-ordination.

Groups can be named things like "The Vampires", "The Mummies", "The Frankensteins", etc... Set up stations with a different activity at each. After a designated time, (ten, fifteen minutes), blow a whisle to rotate the groups around to the next station. If kids get bored with a game or activity, they will wander off and find their own thing to do!

Depending upon your group of kids, older ones may be happy to act as a "Group Leader". Often older kids are good at coordinating younger kids.

One thing that has been a hit at my parties (both at home and in the classroom) is Ghostie. Ghostie was easy to make. He is cut out of MDF and has a hinged stand on his back, like that of a picture frame. Bean bags are thrown through his mouth... as the kids have gotten older, they just stand further away.

I'd also highly recommend this book, Halloween School Parties. I bought it about 5 years ago and it has tons of great ideas for games, activities and crafts. They are broken down into themes and age appropriate. (A lot of ideas can be carried over into other holidays, too). This book is great if you plan Halloween parties for groups of kids.

The Book: Amazon.com: Halloween School Parties . . . What Do I Do? (What Do I Do? series) (9780964993983): Wilhelminia Ripple, Heather Anderson: [email protected]@[email protected]@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/[email protected]@[email protected]@51J9E4FYHGL

Our Beloved Ghostie:

 

[edwood saucer]

Ms. Wicked - you've obviously done Halloween parties before - you hit the nail on the head a number of times.

YES - on all accounts - breaking the kids up - keeping it fun for all - letting them wander.

Our son - who is ten - really wants the party (it is in exchange for his regular birthday party (no gifts though - just a fun party)). When the neighbor kids get together - the majority have a blast. But him being 10 - it's a bit of a worry about one or two of the peers making fun of it. Which kills me - but kids tend to take things to heart - so we have to work around that - and figure out how to make it extra cool for the older kids.

And - yes - the older kids are wonderful about watching the younger kids. We feel blessed to be in the neighborhood we do, we just have one ornery egg in the neighborhood.

Thanks for your ideas.... keep'em coming!

 

[Lilly]

A neighborhood mom and dad used to do a small carnival type party for thier kids when we were young... it was fun
dunk the mummy( or whatever you like) -if it is nice out and you can find a dunk tank
pin the wart on the witch
how about carving small pumpkins or painting them
a face painting section
maybe you can get the moms and dads to donate old clothes and stuff and the kids can make up costumes - maybe have a contest
If you are having teams you could hide parts of a skelly and first team to get one together wins (number of parts for each team needed)

if its at night don't forget "red light green light"
or sitting around a small fire telling ghost stories

 

[Adam I]

A few years ago we did one.
The two games the kids enjoyed the most were:

Balloon relay - pick up balloon out of tub run 10-20 feet to straw bale, sit on balloon to pop it, run back to tub after balloon is popped.

Mummy wrap - pair kids up, one will be the mummy the other is the wrapper.
The mummy will stand still, the wrapper takes toilet paper and wraps the mummy up.

Of course a hay ride

 

[HalloweenZombie]

We've tried a bunch of games for the younger kids and so far this one was the most successful:

Need:
2 wide buckets of water
2 pairs of tongs (ours looked like skeleton hands)
Air tight Halloween candy containers (we used little plastic coffins, but I've seen pumpkins as well)
Candy

Fill the containers with candy and drop them in the buckets of water. The first team to pull out three containers with tongs wins that round and moves on to the next round.

Here's the catch: Kids are paired up in teams for competition. Each team had one boy and one girl, but you can pair up youngest and oldest or whatever, but try to make the teams fairly even. Each team gets tongs, but each player can only use one hand, so two people operate one set of tongs. It's not as easy as it sounds. At the end, the winning team got prizes (one for a boy and one for a girl). Everybody got to keep the cands they pulled out.

 

[edwood saucer]

These are all great ideas - keep 'em coming. I did order the book plus another one - I will post reviews.

We did think of (not really original - but cute all the same) a mad scientist ice cream sundae laboratory. Where the kids make their own "creations" using "blood" (strawberry syrup), guts (who knows what) and such. Make eyeball cupcakes - things like that.

I think the key to the anarchy is to keep the party down to 3 hours - a 7 to 10 type of thing.

One thing the wife does not know is that I'm inquiring to the local high school garage band rock band if they have a performance fee. These kids are great, and they are young rockers and do one really funny song about working at Dennys.. I don't know if that will happen - but it doesn't hurt to ask.

I am sharing, however, all the ideas I get here, with the wife and we are having a great time brainstorming over them.

Keep'em coming! (and mucho thanks)