Help! I’m the Room Mom for the Fall/Halloween Party. Ideas for Crafts and Game

Love some of the other suggestions. I also always do Bingo also at class parties. If you can afford, bring the individual bags of M&M's or Candy Corns, and the kids can use them as the markers on their boards, and then eat them when the game is finished.

Hi L.! We are in the same club!!
I am doing Scarecrows.. having the parents donate hay and bring old clothes and the kids can make scarecrows..also, we are decorating cookies-- getting sugar cookies and icing and candy corn for the face..
You have to see how much $ you can get donated, if you have cooperative parents.. you can also buy small pumpkins and paint and the kids can paint their own pumpkins and take em home... cut and paste leaves.. I asked the question on mine and I had a few suggestions--check out my questions!!
I also am the room rep for a first grade class :) I figure with a few parents volunteering we can do a scarecrow station or two and cookie decorating station and some crafts-- like with leaves .. I was even thinking of doing a "fishing" bucket and having crafts with magnets and have some kids go 'fishing"!!

Candy Corn Toss
Break the kids up into 4 teams. O. child wears a Halloween pumpkin around their waist, the rest of the team has 2 minutes to toss candy corn (O. at a time) into the pumpkin.
The team with the most candy corns in their pumpkin wins.

Spider Web
Supplies needed:
Ball of black yarn

Children stand in a circle. A ball of yarn is thrown across to another child. The child holds on to a piece of the yarn and then throws the ball across to another child. Continue until a spider web is created.
You can do this as a class or as a team competition.

Candy Corn Relay
Supplies needed:
Candy corn (you will need a lot)
1 Pumpkin or ghost bucket for each team
1 Spoon for each team

Divide children into teams. Set up a course for them to race on. Children scoop up candy corn in spoon and race to the end of the course and dump the candy in the bucket. Run back and tag the next person. First team finishing.wins.

Ghost Waiter
Supplies needed:
Balloon for each team
Paper plate for each team

Divide children into teams. Set up a course for them to race on. The child has to balance a balloon on a paper plate while walking it down the course and back to their team.

Witch's Brew– Cut ten pieces of paper in Halloween related shapes, such as ghosts, bats, pumpkins, or spiders. The shapes need to be about the size of a Ritz cracker. Place the shapes in a pile beside a small bowl or witch's cauldron. Have straws available for each player, along with a stopwatch, or a watch with a second hand. Using the straw as a vacuum, each contestant tries to pick up the shapes and drop them into the cauldron. The player with the fastest time wins. (Ages 6-12)

Eyeball Relay
Supplies needed:
Ping pong balls
Spoons

Divide children into teams. Set up a course for them to race on. The child has to balance a ping pong ball on a spoon while walking it down the course and back to their team. You can use a Sharpie to make the ping pong ball look like an eyeball!

michaels has a ton of foam activity kits.....i have a pilgrim & turkey kit

for snack, walmart has a slab of rice krispy treats....i am using a pumpkin cookie cutter & getting orange icing & having them make a face with orange & black m & m's

i haven't come up with a game yet

I don't remember what we did in 1st/2nd grade as the craft (they always took longer than expected). At that age I remember creating a bingo game, you could use pictures instead of words if you like. I made about 15 different cards and had little trinkets from OTC to give away. We could power through a bunch of games, kids got it so there were lots of winners. I always happened to have extras for those that didn't "win". It was fun.

Get mini pumpkins (the really small ones) and have the kids decorate them with Sharpie markers (others won't work!) and foam stickers, google eyes, etc. Paint will be too messy. Have a place to set the pumpkins for the rest of the day so the marker can dry before the kids take them home. Beware: Some kids will do this very quickly and say "What next?" Others will take ages and be very detailed. Aren't kids great?!

Kids LOVE bingo. Go online and find Halloween bingo games -- you should find free printable sheets you can just copy; don't spend money! The blocks should have images like pumpkins, witch hats, etc. Then they just play bingo. Have small prizes like Halloween pencils and/or shaped erasers. Nothing big enough to have kids upset they don't get it, but something themed for the party.

Be sure to put the class into smaller groups for the activities, and rotate those groups through "stations" with each activity. In other words, you cannot have 26 or 30 kids decorating pumpkins all at once (or you could but it will get loud and crazed). So you have them in groups of five, seven, whatever, and while one group decorates pumpkins, one plays bingo, and another has snack time, and another does another craft...Then after 15 minutes everyone moves, in their groups, to the next station, and so on.

family fun has a TON of really cute crafts and games. I am doing a mummy themed party so am doing a toilet paper tube mummy - add googly eyes for the eyes and then a pom pom for hair - really cute.

Make witches hands (if you can make a food one). Get regular old food gloves like the ones used in the cafeteria and put a candy corn in the finger of each like finger nails. They fill each one with popcorn and tie off at the wrist with a pretty ribbon like a braclet then put a spider ring on the ring finger. They are cute and can be sent home as a favor. Have fun!

I second the mummy wrap game. Use toilet paper- the kids LOVE it.

I didn't read through all your replies so I'm sorry if I'm repeating...for my daughter's 1st grade class we will be doing mini pumpkin bowling. decorating pop bottles for the pins w/halloween themed things ghosts, pumpkins etc., filling the bottles a little w/some rice or sand for a little bit of weight then using a real mini pumpkin for the bowling ball

we are making pom pom spiders using 2 in poms for the body & black chenille pipe cleaners (not sure if thats what they're really called) for the legs & buy the googly eyes...you can also make bats using black boa then cut out wings using black foam craft paper clear wire so the bat will hang. Making ghost magnets using a ready make kit then just adding magnet cut into small squares can be found at joann's or MIchaels or any craft store I'm sure.
Hope that helps

Wish I could be more specific, but I asked a question a few weeks ago about which crafts were best. It's hard to say b/c some children don't do Halloween, so you have to keep the craft 'fall' themed instead, so the mummy's might not work. I was going to suggest little ghosts made out of white trash bag squares, a rolled up ball of newspaper (for the head), and a string or twist tie (to tie up the neck), and black sharpie for the eyes. Maybe a hook or string of some sort to hang the ghost from a tree when they get home.

But here are other ideas i've found:
Parenting mag recipes: http://www.parenting.com/gallery/eerie-edibles-halloween-...

Cupcakes: http://www.parenting.com/gallery/spooky-and-gross-hallowe...

Crafts: http://www.parenting.com/gallery/easy-halloween-crafts-fa...

Plus I have Family Fun magazine: http://familyfun.go.com/

and Woman's Day magazine: http://www.womansday.com/

Two paper crafts:
Paper snakes
http://www.jamboree.freedom-in-education.co.uk/w's%20...

and paper hand spiders
http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/handprint_spider_craft.htm

We're doing these in my daughter 2nd grade class but I think they would work for 1st also. They are having a Halloween party, they can dress up etc, but we are doing it more like a Harvest Fest and focusing on things that scare us - reading books about them and learning, so these crafts fit right in!

http://www.dltk-holidays.com/halloween/index.html

This is a great site. There are cut and glue crafts, toilet paper tube crafts, games, activities...many different themes. I love this site.

I know a popular game is to bring tp and wrap kids like a mummy, first group done wins. I'm sure you could look on line for variations.
A quick game would be to bring in a pumpkin and have kids guess the weight, or use a jar of candy corn and have them guess how many. The winner keeps the pumpkin or candy.