Kids young and old adore Halloween. It’s a fun chance to dress up as someone else, enjoy the fall weather, and have a scary good time. Hosting a frightfully fun kids’ party in the classroom can be simple and enjoyable with these creative ideas for homemade games, snacks, and decorations.

Three Bone-Rattling Games

No kids’ party would be complete without a few games to keep things active. Depending on the ages of the students, there are lots of Halloween-themed activities that can be played right in the classroom. Ask your room mother or other parent volunteers to come in and help with these fun activities. Gather all the supplies for the games and divide the students up into groups. Then organize the classroom into stations where students have space to play different games.

Pin-the-Face-on-the-Pumpkin

Instead of pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey, try the fun and festive pin-the-face-on-the-pumpkin. First, purchase an extra-large pumpkin, and place it on a stool or bench. Cut eyes, noses, and mouths out of black construction paper and affix masking tape or double-sided tape to the backside. To play the game, blindfold the kids and have them take turns trying to put on the jack-o-lantern’s facial features.

Monster Bowling

For monster bowling, make ghostly pins by putting beans or sand in empty plastic bottles and draping them with white fabric. Secure the fabric on the empty bottles with rubber bands and draw on faces with permanent markers. Add stick-on eyes, mouth, and teeth to make your bowling ball look like a monster’s head. Another quieter version of this game uses rolls of toilet paper as the pins. If you chose this option, you might want to wrap the toilet paper with a piece of fabric and tuck in the ends to keep it from falling apart too quickly. You can use a small round pumpkin or a tennis ball in place of the bowling ball.

Mummy Wrapping Contest

This fun game only requires a few rolls of toilet paper. Divide the class into 4-6 stations. Instruct the students to pick one person to be the "mummy." The designated mummy is to hold very still while the other students carefully wrap him or her in toilet paper. The object of the game is to see which team is the fastest at wrapping their mummy. This is a team-oriented game where the students work together to pass the roll of toilet paper to each other. On your command, the game begins. The team to use all their toilet paper and wrap their mummy the best wins!

Three Spellbinding Snacks

Ghastly Ghostly Punch

Regular snacks and beverages can take on a frightful theme with a little creativity. To turn your favorite punch or juice into witches’ brew, place a metal bowl inside a large cauldron-like pot. Make ghostly ice by filling a plastic mask and rubber gloves with water. Be sure to tape over the eye, nose, and mouth holes with duck tape before filling it with water. Then place them in the freezer overnight. The next morning, just remove the ice from the mask and gloves, and you’ve got a frozen face and hands for punch with a surprising punch.

Mummy Mini-Pizzas

For a quick and easy snack try some mummy mini pizzas. This is a fun snack that students can prepare on their own. Have parents donate the ingredients for this healthy filling treat and you are set to go. Students top English muffins with pizza sauce shredded mozzarella and black olives for eyes. Then devour!

Creepy Crawling Cupcakes

Cupcakes are always a bit hit with youngsters. Decorate cooled cupcakes with orange frosting and cobweb design. Wash and add a few plastic black spiders from the dollar store. If you prefer, decorate the cupcakes with facial features cut from black licorice to make festive-looking jack-o-lanterns.

Read a Spooktacular Story

Take a trip to your school or community library to gather a few spooktacular Halloween books to read to your class. You'll find lots to choose from but here are a few favorite books that can be used as an activity during the party.

Here are few of my favorites tales:

Halloween Hustle by Charlotte Gunnufson. In the dark with a funky beat. Something white with bony feet. Skeleton dancing up the street and doing the Halloween Hustle. Your students will love this catchy rhyming story about Skeleton is dancing his way to a Halloween party.As he grooves across town, he keeps stumbling, tumbling, and falling apart! Can Skeleton stay in one piece long enough to make it to the party?

The Runaway Pumpkin by Kevin Lewis is a story about two brothers and their little sister, who see the biggest pumpkin they've ever seen in their lives. They try to roll the pumpkin down the hill to show everyone, but it's too big! Before long, it's bumping and thumping and rolling down the hillside out of control. This is a catchy and repetitive story to read aloud in the classroom.

Pumpkin Jack by Will Hubbel. The first pumpkin Tim ever carved was fierce and funny, and he named it Jack. When Halloween was over and the pumpkin was beginning to rot, Tim set it out in the garden and throughout the weeks he watched it change.

Dreadful Classroom Decorations

Turn your classroom into a haunted scene with fake cobwebs and floating jack-o-lanterns. Draw faces on a few orange helium-inflated balloons with a permanent marker for floating jack-o-lanterns.

For your reading chair, use a white pillowcase to turn it into ghostly chair cover. Simply cut out eye and mouth shapes from black felt and attach with fabric glue.

Be sure to set the mood with spooky sounds. Make a playlist with hits like Flying Purple People Eater, Monster Mash, and don’t forget Thriller.

There is something about Halloween which really catches the imaginations of children maybe it’s all the sweets, games, tales, and dressing up! This year throw a spooktacular party for some downright thrilling fun! Happy Halloween!