My teachers generally like the idea of having "stations" for our holiday parties. Especially because the kids are so young, this helps avoid the "chaos" and also holds their attention span better because they are doing something new every 15 minutes or so. We do our parties at the end of the day, so that all necessary tasks can be completed. I like to begin the festivities with some sort of class dance or exercise to get out all that excitement that has been building all day. We usually wrap up as a class with holiday themed BINGO.
Halloween Party
So the obvious choice here for a starter exercise activity is the Monster Mash Freeze Dance. Their are many different popular Halloween songs to choose from, so pick something that you think will get the class moving. We did a "practice" turn, and then the real thing. Depending on the age, sometimes the last few can go on and on, so it's always a good idea to have prizes for 3-5 just in case.
Then we break into stations. This year I did "Owl Cupcakes", "Spooky Hands" and "Scary Sippers", Halloween Themed Candy Holders out of Paper Plates, and a Halloween Game that the teacher had.
Spooky Hands and Scary Sippers . Let's face it, popcorn makes you thirsty. And since these two are so simple and fast to make, I went ahead and made them at one station. I did have trouble finding the gloves! You don't want medical or cleaning gloves, obviously. And food grade gloves are hard to come by, if you don't know where to look. I had luck at the Dollar Tree. It was the only place I could find them, and cheap, which is always great! I would recommend bringing already made popcorn. These stations go by quicker than you think, and you don't want to get behind popping. You can make theses as intricate or simple as you wish. We didn't have googly eyes, but simply hand decorated our mummies. I forgot the ribbon, so we used twine. We snacked on popcorn as we made them so that the kids could bring home their "hands" to show off. Some kids even opted to save their drink for home.
Candy Holder <--This is the idea I was going for. Unfortunately, being my first ever party, I didn't anticipate having to prep all the pieces for the kids to be able to efficiently create their craft. So let's just say that our First Graders used their own creative flair to make it their own. And it was quite a success! We opted for a "sewing" method, because our class happens to really enjoy it. And the little girls were so creative, and actually turned them into purses by attaching a longer piece of yarn from one ear to another. So in summary, prep pieces before, especially if kids are younger. I know this is time consuming, but things will run smoothly. I would also have the teacher take time the day or week before to have the kids paint or color their paper plates.
Our teacher had a number of Halloween games in class, and she opted for a mathematical one for the kids to play in pairs. You can always just substitute the BINGO in here, and be all set.
As always, kids bring in goodies to hand out, so we used the last bit of time to hand out candy/goodies to be put in our candy holders.
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