Fun Tips, Helpful Hints, and Creative Classroom Party Ideas By Kristin Fitch
Does your child have a Halloween or Fall Party coming up this month? Are you a room parent or volunteer tasked with planning the party? Here's a group of great ideas to pull from that are sure to make your party a ton of fun for the kids.
When planning a classroom party it is important to schedule time to eat and have a drink and time to participate in an activity, games or do a craft. It is also essential to plan activities, games or crafts that can be done allowing time to get the room cleaned up during the duration of the party. Pick something that is able to be done in a group of 10-30 kids (depending on class size). You will also need to consider the cost of the supplies you will need for the number of kids at the party.
Halloween Class Party Ideas to Keep Kids Busy
Halloween Word Search- A great addition to a Halloween party because while kids move between food and a craft or game, you have a quiet activity to keep the kids busy at their table.
Halloween I Spy Printable for young kids or Highlights Kids Printable Hidden Picture Deserted Mansion (also Pumpkin Picking and Jack-o-Lanterns Hidden Pictures) - Hidden Pictures or I Find Printables are great to have on hand at parties in case the activities you planned finish up before expected. One year the kids were more interested in finding all of the hidden images than doing the craft.
Halloween Classroom Party Ideas to Get Kids Crafty
Decorate Y our O wn Mini Treasure Boxes (or Halloween Boxes)- Kids love having a place to put little treasures or a few dollars. Collect enough small tins or purchase at the dollar store for each child. Use Sticker paper or regular heavy duty paper and glue to cover the tops of the tins or plastic containers(use the template at link for shapes) and then supply markers, stickers and stamps and let kids decorate their own tins to keep. Provide a fun little Halloween treasure for inside.
Halloween Backpack Clip or Pin (Pumpkin) Cute and easy craft for kids, these little mini Pumpkin clips can be made in a short amount of time. Just cut out little pumpkins from craft foam or use pre-cut pumpkins, then using a hole punch, make holes and attach clips. Kids can then decorate their pumpkins.
Foam or Popsicle Stick Picture Frame- Fall or Halloween Theme. Pick up a few large packs of colored foam sheets. Cut out the center of the foam for a picture and cut out different objects for the theme (Fall, Halloween or Harvest). Take pictures of the kids (possibly a day or two earlier) and print the images. Let kids glue on decorations and write their names on their frame.
Pumpkin Tissue Paper Painting (no Paint required) Let kids create a Halloween masterpiece during their party. Art teacher Kathy Barbro shows you how. Only supplies needed are tissue paper, paper, paint brushes and water. Easy to make and clean up.
Make Your Own Personal Jack-O-Lantern Buy 2-3 bags of mini-pumpkins and bring paint brushes and paint or markers and let kids decorate their very own pumpkins to make Jack-O-Lanterns.
Easy Big Black Spider Craft Make these super easy Black Spiders for a quick and easy Halloween classroom craft.
Halloween Classroom Party Ideas to Use More Imagination
Create Your Own Spook-tacular Haunted Journal- Decorate a journal front (stickers, markers, etc) and write a halloween story at home. Start by sharing a favorite Halloween Tale with the kids (see idea below). To get kids started have them write down a title, author’s name (themselves), and who, what and where their story will take place. Tell them they can work on the story all month and share it with a parent or friend later this month.
Create Your Own Halloween Story- Printable Blank Story writing page. Don’t have time to do a Spook-tacular journal? Print off these blank story sheets and then tell the kids to think of a title, write a Halloween story and illustrate their own original story.
Read a Seasonal or Halloween story to the class- Pick a favorite Halloween story (or a funny, suspenseful or silly story) and read it to the class.
Fun & Games
Easy Halloween Animal Masks- Want to get the kids in the spirit of Halloween? Let each of them make an animal face mask (let them pick between a few different animals, such as a monkey, giraffe, tiger). It just takes craft foam, elastic cord, scissors, and glue. You can have a combination of masks pre- cut and then let kids decorate them or give them templates to trace and cut with help.
Pumpkin Game - Put about a dozen mini-pumpkins in a tub of water. Mark one of the pumpkins with a number or holiday symbol on the bottom. Each child gets a turn to try and find the marked pumpkin and gets a small prize (stickers, temporary tattoo, mini bag of pretzels, etc…) if they select the right one.
Ooey-Gooey Gross- Guess What’s in the Box. Take 8 shoeboxes and cut a square hole in the top of each. Cover each shoebox -cut flap over hole. Place 8 items in bowls to put into the boxes and let kids go down the line and figure out what’s in the box. Pick things like slimy noodles, mushrooms, mashed bananas, and other ooey, gooey things. Have kids write down what is in each box (they should not be able to see in the box). Once every child gets a turn, collect the sheets and award a prize to the top 1-3 kids who got the most right.
Boo Box- Give Each child a small box with approx. 20 cotton balls, cord, stickers, 4 pieces of rectangular foam (that fits in box), and put glue and paper, popsicle sticks, markers or crayons on each table. Let the kids invent or create anything they like. Some will make a picture, others an ornament, and others may create a decoration on a popsicle stick and so on. It is a fun activity to see what each child will create.
Food
When planning food and drinks for a classroom party, room parents should first talk to the teacher to find out if there are any children with food allergies (ex. nuts, milk, eggs, etc…). Next, remember kids have usually had lunch within two hours of the party so the amount and portions of the food items should be snack size. We are encouraging our room parents to try to offer healthy drink and snack options such as: water, 100% mini juice boxes, roaring waters Capri Suns and for snack- pretzels, baked chips, fruit slices, veggie sticks, and for a goodie limit it to one appropriate size portion. For instance, I often bring in the min-cupcakes because kids do not need the extra large ones and often they go to waste.
Easy Halloween Cupcakes-Decorate Your Own Halloween Cookie Station- bring in mini cupcakes (lower fat option), and light icing and decorations. Allow kids to decorate their cupcakes (have parents spread icing or help kids).
Volunteer Coordination
VolunteerSpot- Check out the School Party Ideas ebook by VolunteerSpot for even more ideas for your Halloween party and for tips on how to use VolunteerSpot to help you set up parent volunteers on the big day.
Kristin Fitch is a parenting expert, author, educator and mom of three beautiful boys. She is also the CEO and E ditor of Ziggity Zoom, LLC which hosts several crafting, parenting and activity sites including Mommie911.com, ZiggityZoom.com, and CuriousBaby.com, among others. Kristin writes articles and how-to videos for ZiggityZoom.com, as well as many other parenting related websites as she encourage parents to find ways to spark kids' imagination, creativity and to explore the world around them. Kristin can be found on Facebook and Twitter.
