As we near Halloween, playing games in the classroom is not only fun but also helps to foster important skills, both educational and social. Here are a few activities to engage your students during this fun holiday.
Halloween Team Spirit
This Halloween game is perfect as an icebreaker and a way for the children to work together. Begin by cutting out five orange witch hats, five white ghosts, and five black cats. On each of the five hats write a letter to spell “WITCH" and do the same for GHOST and BLACK. Hide these shapes in the party room before game time. Prepare nametags for your students where equal numbers of hat, ghost and cat shapes are drawn onto the tag. Form three teams where the witches search for the hats, ghosts for ghost and cats search for the black cat shapes. The first team to find all five shapes wins. This game is good for 15 people. For a party of 21, think of using the words “monster, pumpkin, and costume."
Who am I?
This is a fun game and very social. For this activity you will need index cards and safety pins. Write the names of characters on the index cards. Make sure the characters are ones that the kids are familiar with. They could be a popular movie, story, cartoon and Halloween characters. Think about Frankenstein, The Mummy, Mickey Mouse, Cinderella and such. Pin one on the back of each student. Then, have the kids walk around the room and tap a person. Give them a clue or ask questions to see if that person can guess which character they are.
Bat Cave Toss Game
Bats are sure to be out on Halloween night and looking to find their caves. This game requires three cardboard box containers. Spray paint these black. Have various sizes and distances from a taped line where the players stand. Make three bats from black felt fabric, sew them and fill with dried beans. Store-bought beanbags work well too. Players try to toss the bats into the caves and receive points or prizes for their accomplishments. You may also consider tossing pumpkins into the pumpkin patch or monsters into the haunted castles or whatever is appropriate to your Halloween party theme.
Eyeball Relay Race
Before the party, make eyeballs from Ping-pong balls. Use permanent markers to make the eye color, pupils and bloodshot eye veins on each ball. You will need about five balls per team. To play the game, set a chair across the room from each team. Have the first player cup her hands and fill them with the eyeballs. She then needs to race over to the chair and sit down. She then gets up and races back to the team without dropping any of the eyeballs. If any fall, she must retrieve them before handing them over to the next player. The first team who finishes the entire course wins the game.
Halloween Flashlight Dancing
Cut circles from orange construction paper to cover the end of flashlights. Make jack-o-lantern faces on each circle and cut out the pieces. Tape these onto the ends of each flashlight. Give one to each child, dim the lights and let them dance around shining their jack-o-lantern faces on the ceiling and walls. Adding fun Halloween music makes the dancing even more entertaining.
Sources:
Personal experience
Eyeball Relay Race adapted from Family Fun Parties; Deanna F. Cook [Disney Enterprises Inc. 1999] Book
