Ranaldi Way of Life

1. The Eye Ball Race – Do you remember the egg and spoon race? Well add this little touch to make it Halloween themed. Use markers to paint the eggs like blood shot eyeballs. Make sure that the eggs are room temperature so you don’t have smears everywhere. I like to boil the eggs for easier cleanup and making the teens eat them if they drop them so they get added protein. Of course, someone who is allergic to eggs, would be excused. I also like to use orange and black plastic spoons for a more Halloween festive touch.

2.  Pumpkin Bowling – You will need 10 empty two liter bottles and a couple of pumpkins that are about the same size of a bowling ball. Add 2 cups of water to each bottle and red food coloring until it is blood red. Set the bottles up as you would bowling pins and have fun watching teens trying to knock down the pins with a very uncooperative bowling ball. For added fun, I like to paint the pumpkins with acrylic paint making them look like monster heads.

3. Apple Bobbing – This is a classic game but still a lot of fun. Just use a large cauldron for the Halloween theme and fill it with water. Add apples. The teen that can get the most apples using only their mouth, wins! this one can be fun too if you throw in some floating plastic bugs into the water to avoid 🙂

4.  Mr. Pumpkin Head – I’m sure you’ve heard of “Pin the tail on the donkey”. Well this is what I came up with for a Halloween spin. Buy one large pumpkin and punch holes where the eyes, ears, nose, and mouth would go. If you don’t already have Mr. Potato Head Parts, it’s not that expensive to buy a new one. Place the parts in a small cauldron and blindfold the game player. They have to use their hand to dig out a part from the cauldron and try to place it in the right hole. Once they’ve filled all six holes, take off the blindfold so they can see their masterpiece. The teen who gets the most parts placed correctly, wins! You can also vary this game to be pin the mouth on the bat, pin the tail on the cat, pin the head on the skeleton… anything pretty much.  ALSO an alternative to blindfolding could be to have them walk backwards to the board and press it on using double sided tape without turning around and looking. OR place a large piece of cardboard in front of the board with the Pumpkin, skeleton bat, cat whatever on it and have them reach behind to press it on the picture having to guess where to put it without being able to actually SEE it.

*main object that we will be pinning to (large real pumpkin OR paper cut out’s such as skeleton, bat, cat…)

5.  Pumpkin Decorating – Decorating pumpkins is a great children’s Halloween party activity. I love to use paint and have an adult help glue jiggly eyeballs on.  We can also use the ‘mr potato head’ pieces to create a face on the pumpkin if they choose to not use markers or paint.

6. Halloween Bingo! – Halloween bingo is another game great for a children’s Halloween party. You have a number of different options when it comes to this fun Halloween game. For instance, you can find a number of free printable Halloween bingo cards and game pieces online or you can make your own. You also have options with how the game can be played. For toddlers or preschoolers, you may want to use pictures, instead of numbers. These pictures can include Halloween objects such as bats, witches, broomsticks, pumpkins, and so forth.

7.  Mr. Bones Relay Race – Cut out paper skeleton from the free printable template and glue to poster board or felt. THEN split kids into teams or have them work together as one to race and build Mr Bones back together one piece at a time. Provide double sided tape on each piece (adults will do this) so when the next kid grabs a piece from the bowl it will be ready to be stuck on the board in front of them and stick.

8. Mix N Match Pumpkin Patch Game –  Have a bunch of large Orange pumpkins cut out from Felt OR construction paper mounted on a wall or door.  Next have a large container filled with various shapes for the Jack-o-lantern faces; triangles, squares, rectangles, circles… these shapes will be used for the eyes, teeth, mouth, eyebrows, nose … you can set the kids up and do another relay style activity where each kid grabs one shape and uses a glue stick (if made of paper) to stick their shape anywhere on the pumpkins face.  Each team will continue taking turns, one piece at a time until all the pieces are gone OR the adult decides the face is complete (this can be decided ahead of time with a sample “finished” pumpkin to show exactly how many pieces will be needed to complete the face)  A relay is not needed though, the group could complete the pumpkin working together as a team each taking turns to put one piece on at a time until it is finished.

Caramel APples (or apple slices).. I have also seen some cute pictures of using apple slices put together like a sandwhich with peanut butter and mini marshmallows so it looks like a mouth with teeth. *cute*!!

Rice Crispy Treats – there are SO many creative ways to serve these IN class, or to send home in a little goody bag.

chocolate chip pumpkin “cup cakes”

apple juice/juice boxes to drink

1. ….. twigs stuck into paper lunch bags filled with Candy, but they can also be filled with bubbles and other Halloween related $ store goodies

2.… instead of making rice crispy’s for the IN class treat, we can send them home with little rice crispy ghosts!

3.… yogurt covered pretzels… theres a cute option also of making them look like little pumpkins w a green M&M.

4.  … these are super sugary, but they look simple and fun for the kids to eat. I could even make little faces on each marshmallow