Halloween Party games

[mesmark]

I run a small English school but have a pretty good turn out at my Halloween Party every year.

I like to have new things every year for the events.

Anyone have any great party games hidden up there sleeves?

[mesmark]

I came up with this game because I was sitting around thinking of something to do with a big bag of Tootsie Rolls.

Tootsie Toss: a two person (team) game

One person wears a plastic pumpkin-bucket necklace. It's a Jack o' Lantern bucket suspended with a rope of some sort. This person stands in some small designated area.

The second person is, from some distance, going to toss tootsie rolls to the first person.

The first person can manuver within the given area to catch the tootsie. The only rules are they can't leave the area or touch the bucket with their hands or arms.

It's freakin' hilarious! and good fun.

Eventually you get someone who could care less about winning and just starts peggin' their friend.

You can have several groups compete using time or a certain number of candy pieces.

[matspud]

There are some good ones on the spookmaster website and you don't need to subscribe for them unlike the patterns.

[Zombie Pumpkins!]

Eventually you get someone who could care less about winning and just starts peggin' their friend.

Oh sure, it's all fun and games until someone gets an eye poked out, with a tootsie-roll.

[matspud]

Don't get them over here.

[mesmark]

Here's another game but it might not be very good for adults. and you need a laminator (or to run by any copy shop, they'll do it for you.)

Jack o' Fishing:
I printed out some jack o' lantern pictures and cut them out. Then I ran them through the laminator and cut them out again.

I took a suction cup ball (a ball that has little suction cups all the way around - you can find them at most toy stores) and tied one end of a long string to it. I made a finger loop on the other end.

I placed all of the jack o' lanterns on the floor and from some distance away, the students would throw the ball and try to catch a Jack o' Lantern. They would then real it in and get a prize.

Small children will need to be closer. Older children should be pretty far away or it's too easy.


big picture

The ball will usually stick to the laminated picture.

[Zombie Pumpkins!]

Those sound like fun games, mesmark. How about "Pin the stem on the pumpkin"? I think you can figure out how that would be played.

[mesmark]

Bump!

Those sound like fun games, mesmark. How about "Pin the stem on the pumpkin"? I think you can figure out how that would be played.

I do have a pin the nose on the Jack o' Lantern game. I bought some fabric that velcro sticks to. I cut out two large pumpkin patterns (3ftx3ft) and drew eyes and a mouth on them. I glueed those down to a large green felt sheet using fabric glue. Then I cut out several different nose patterns using black velcro strips.

The game works well.

Last year I played 2 new games:

the Candy Catch:
Children place one hand on their neck and then balance a piece of candy on their elbow. Then they try to catch that piece of candy with the same hand. If they can catch it, they advance to the next round and try to catch two pieces of candy.
(you should know this game. You've probably played it with quarters.)


the Bone Collector: It's just the card game War, but I made my own playing cards with bones in stead of hearts, diamonds ... The kids over here in Japan don't play that game so they really enjoyed it. You can download the Bone Collector cards from here www.mes-english.com/flashcards/halloween.php


I'm still hoping to do better and better every year. If anyone has any more game ideas, I could really use them.

[katieme]

Thanks for the cards mesmark. My kids will love them. I love the jack o lantern fishing game. I will be helping with my sons halloween party and that sounds like just the game for them.

[CorpseBride]

Halloween Bone Hunt
Supplies:

Bags of small plastic bones. (Find these at a discount store with Halloween supplies and get enough for kids to find several each.)
Sack for each child
Preparation:

Put a sticker or draw a symbol on some of the bones to make prize bones. Before the party, hide the bones on the playground.

Game Play:

Play this game outside. When you say 'Go', children run around hunting for the bones (as in an Easter egg hunt.) Give prizes for the most bones collected and for 'prize bones.'



.....found it on about.com....thought it was pretty cute!

Plus there is always the blind touch game where you feel "yucky" things.

[Batgirl]

As someone that has thrown many a Halloween party, I know tons of fun games to play at Halloween:

Mummy Wrap Race: choose someone (preferably an adult or older kid) and teams race to wrap the person with a roll of toilet paper without breaking the tp.

Build-A-Monster: Have pieces of a monster in a bag/folder/envelope and teams have to race to tape the monster together the right way. They can be made from felt, laminated construction paper, posters, etc. You can get as basic as head, chest, legs and arms; or you can get more detailed with eyes, mouth, feet, horns, etc.

Gross Guess: Have boxes with holes cut out for children to stick their hands in. Inside the boxes you can have bowls of peeled grapes, spaghetti, jell-o, and so on. Depending on how many kids go through, you might want additional back-ups on hand. The boxes should be labeled with "Eyes of Newt", "Witch's Hair", and things like that. It's more of an activity rather than a game.

Pass the Pumpkin: Musical chairs with a pumpkin being passed around. Play Halloween music, of course

Musical Tombstones: If you don't want kids throwing pumpkins, heh.

Ghost Bingo: I think you get it.

Eyeball Relay/Toss: Spoons with ping-pong balls decorated like eyeballs.

Creepy Costume Race: Have Halloween costumes with which teams have to dress up an adult. Pirate costumes work well for this.

Hope that helps!! If you have any more questions about these games or more games, feel free to ask.

[mesmark]

a few more games I've played in the past

Eyeball relay: I'm going to paint some ping-pong balls to look like eyeballs. One member of a team of two will carry the eyeball on a spoon some distance to the other team member and then the other has to bring it back. I might put a maze or something in between the transfer. I haven't decided.

Pumpkin Buddies: two people will take turns rolling 2 miniture pumpkins (about the size of a baseball) toward larger pumpkins. The person whose mini-pumpkin is closest to the large pumpkin is the winner.

Monster Rock Paper Scissors: children can play rock-paper-scissors against the monster. If they win they can draw a paper from the prize box. There will be papers with different levels (level 0 - no prize, try again, level 1 - small prize, level 2 -better prize, level 3 - ultimate prize.) If they lose they must sit in the dungeon for 5 minutes or until the dungeon is full. Only three people or so in the dungeon.

Skeleton Zap:

- Get a hold of 30-40 disposable chopsticks or popsicle sticks
- draw 1, 2, or 3 pumpkins on the popsicle sticks
- on a few popsicle sticks draw a skull (a Zap stick)

Put all the sticks in a container or cup. Kids take turns drawing a stick from the cup. They get points for each pumpkin.

If the kids draw a 'skull' stick, they have to put all their sticks back.

Play for 10 rounds

[mesmark]

Here's a new printable Halloween activity pack for kids. It might be good for Halloween parties or great at a pumpkin carving party if you need to keep some little ones busy while mom and/or dad are trying to carve a pumpkin.



I put together a bunch of different Halloween printables from my various sites, like a word search, crossword, maze, bingo cards, a printable board game, coloring pages and activity sheets. You can make more of the same and make personalized version as well.

[Kayo]

i always loved proper bobbing for apples (the string hung from a branch over head) because i never wanted to soak my costume but there was something entertaining about watching people chase an apple like a puppy chasing its tail

[monstermash]

i always loved proper bobbing for apples (the string hung from a branch over head) because i never wanted to soak my costume but there was something entertaining about watching people chase an apple like a puppy chasing its tail

Bobbing or ducking for apples was always my fav halloween game. To save ourselves getting soaked what we'd do is still have the apples in a big tub of water but instead of putting our faces into the water we'd stand or kneal on a chair and hold a fork in our mouths. You then drop the fork from above over the tub and try to stab an apple. Great fun!!!!