Not being a fan of scary movies–or being startled, scared, or frightened–in the least bit, Halloween is not at all one of my favorite holidays.
Rather than focus on the creepy, I try to keep things on the cute, sweet, and tricky side over here. So when the good folks at the National Zoo asked if I wanted to offer my readers a family four-pack of tickets to Boo at the Zoo this Friday, I thought it would be right up my alley.
And this giveaway would also give me a chance to solicit some great snack, craft, and game ideas for my new job as a Halloween Party Planner for Maddy’s 1st grade class. I’ve got a fab parent Co-Room Parenting with me, so we’re sure this party will go down as one of the coolest ever, but we’re new at this, so we can sure use some help.
So here are just two ways we ring in Halloween over here, one not-at-all spooky decoration treat and one pretty funny trick:
- Halloween Not-So-Spooky Ghosts: Our Halloween Ghost decorations are so simple and are so, so cute.
We had medium-sized styrofoam balls that we stuck into gardening sticks we broke in half. We cut an old, old sheet into squares, covered the styrofoam lollipop, and tied a string under the ball as a ghost sheet.
our not-so-spooky Halloween ghostsThen we drew on eyes and a ghost mouth, and we were finished! The ghosts line our ‘needs-to-be-weeded’ front garden and greet us as we come and go.
- Halloween Googly-Eye Trick: Googly-eyes always make us laugh over here, so around this time of year, usually the last 10-15 days leading up to Halloween, I get googly-eye crazy.
Just for fun, I put googly eyes in funny, secret spots each day and see who will be the first to find them and giggle.
One day the eyes might show up in the ‘O’ on a placemat. . .
. . . or they might end up on somebody’s breakfast spoon.
I really thought myself waaaay clever when they landed on our pencil sharpener, but the most laughs came on the day that the googly eyes were on the bathroom counter door.
They’re so inexpensive, they stick with the teeniest dot of glue, and they pop off and on like nothing. Happy googly-eye spotting!
GIVEAWAY: 4 tickets to Boo at the Zoo!
Do you want to head over to the National Zoo this Friday night, 10/22/10, for a fun family night at Boo at the Zoo? (Tickets are $30 each, and Saturday is already sold out!)
- All you need to do is leave a comment here with a suggestion for a fun, not-so-spooky treat, game, or craft that might work for a 1st grade Halloween Party. We don’t have a lot of time or money, so keep that in mind! (And please leave your email address so I can reach you!)
This contest is quick! For planning purposes, this contest will close at midnight on Wed., 10/20/10. Winner will be notified and will pick up the tickets at the gate on 10/22.
(And even if you aren’t local to the DC Metro area and can’t use the tickets for Boo at the Zoo, I’d sure love to read any of your Halloween Party ideas! Thank you, thank you!)
Many thanks for your ideas, friends, and many, many thanks to the great people at the National Zoo for giving a teach mama reader the 4 tickets to this event. This is an unsponsored post, but we love the National Zoo so much, we’re happy to share our zoo love with others.
Nice post! My tip for a Halloween part activity for 1st graders is to make green slime with water, cornstarch and food coloring. Really fun for kids who like tactile activities!
I love the googly-eye idea! I as going to hide a few right now!
One of my kiddos favorite games is Don't Eat Pete.
Here's how you play. Put a piece of candy (we use Cherrios at home, but I might break out the candy corn for Halloween) on each of the squares on the card. Have one person leave the room. The rest of the group will choose one of the
Halloween characters to be "FRANK".
The person can come back into to the room. He or she can eat the candy from the card until they get to the square that was chosen to be "FRANK". As soon as they go to pick up that piece of candy
every will yell, "DON'T EAT FRANK!" and their turn is over. Simple game, but my kiddos think it's wildly funny!
You can download a cute Halloween version here:
http://prepared-not-scared-3.googlegroups.com/web/Don%27t%20Eat%20Frank!.pdf?gda=dGT4olcAAADUpoIHGdEwGlMSk_AUTlpNrqE77-h_ADbe5fZlqsE2E5y4iA_ehRo5t16J41Cigjjys5N-VLUW52D6fVQED0KWYZqzEd7hr7z69NT6IftdMXleHbr-qQzBoYYWXY0JTQM
you have such awesome ideas amy! Something my mother did when we were younger for halloween that I will do with my children when they get older was a fake "dinner", let me explain. She got the candy "peas and carrots" (sold at giant I think?) and made jello in a cup with a straw and used chocolate to look like meatloaf…we sat down to eat and were in for a surprise!!! It was funny and something I will never forget! 🙂
Please put my name in for the zoo tix! I love the idea of googly eyes. Sophia's fave holiday is Halloween and sadly I haven't done much to decorate or get ready.
I am however making both kids' costumes.
I've been a room parent for preschool and 1st grade. Ghost Bowling has always been a hit with teh kiddos as a Halloween Party Game.
http://www.hgtv.com/holidays-occasions/ghost-bowling-halloween-party-game/index.html
Patti
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I'm a big fan of mummy hot dogs. We eat those for dinner on most Halloweens.
Does watching the squirrels eat decomposing pumpkins count as a Halloween activity? Does it count as gardening if, after the squirrels have eaten, we throw the pumpkin in the back of the yard and see if anything grows?
Easiest Halloween treat I know: chocolate pudding with oreo crumbs dirt and gummy worms climbing out.
We love Boo at the Zoo and haven't been in years!
How about decorating the tiny pumpkins or gourds with face stickers (and googly eyes!)? The small pumpkins can be found pretty cheap, especially when you get close to Halloween- they want to sell the inventory! I'm making mummy hotdogs for our Halloween party, and also pumpkin rice krispy treats (orange food coloring in the shape of a pumpkin). Have fun!
i agree about the not so scary halloween stuff! the pea and i went to a friend's house and he was TERRIFIED of their creepy decorations—to the point that he wouldn't go to the bathroom b/c there were creepy hands coming out of the wall. seriously!? we are having a halloween party, too and here is what we are doing–mini pumpkin/gourd painting, popsicle pumpkin puzzle painting, pumpkin pitch, pumpkin bowling, zombie tag, guess how many candy corn are in the jar and a costume "show." hope that helps!
I had to make the crafts for the first grade halloween party last year my dear — then the kiddo got swine flu and we missed the whole thing but my crafts still went off without a hitch.
Craft one: Toilet Paper Pumpkins from Family Fun (years ago) We bought toilet paper from Dollar Tree (or you can ask each kid to bring in a roll) then bought an assortment of orange fabric at Walmart cut into a squares big enough to wrap each roll. Set TP in the middle of the paper, tuck/stuff the excess fabric down the tube then add a stem made out of rolled up brown paper (shopping bags/ construction paper/ or real sticks/cinnamon sticks if you want to get fancy) Add a green pipe cleaner fine and felt leaf and you have a cute halloween/thanksgiving decoration for the back of the toilet!
Craft Two — Creepy Laughing Cups.
I bought Orange and Green Party Cups (or just use Halloween Cups) Turn the cup upside down — Bottoms up! Knot a piece of string/orange yarn and
thread it through the cup with about 8 inches hanging down under the cup opening. Wet your fingers pinch the string and slowly jerk your fingers down the string — it makes a weird creepy/cheeping laughing sound. Bonus — you could decorate the cups like Frankenstein/Monsters/or Orange Pumpkins (construction paper shapes/ Googly Eyes/Foam Shapes)
We love Boo at the Zoo but couldn't afford tickets this year. Fingers (and toes) crossed!
xoxo MaryLea
I bought a pumpkin decorating craft kit from Oriental Trading last year for our playgroup. It came with enough foam pieces to decorate 12 pumpkins with a variety of different funny faces. The kids loved them, and there was no mess! It only cost around $3-4 for the pack.
We've been to Boo at the Zoo 3 years in a row, but tickets are a little too expensive for us this year, so we're breaking tradition. 🙁 I'd love to win!
How about some googly eyes on fabric colored lolly pops? Or, put some food green food coloring in your rice crispy treats and pipe on some icing eyes and black hair for Frankenstein rice crispy treats!
I wasn't into scary Halloween either, but being a mom to 2 boys has made this a time they love the creepy. We've got skeletons in the front, and I'd much prefer your little ghosties! My easy suggestion for a craft is to hit Michaels. We went last week and got cute masks to decorate with random things in the craft bin. Everything was majorly marked down and so easy!
What a great giveaway!
I think we are going to do eyeballs as a craft this year – You get mini-powdered donuts and put a dot of red icing in the middle and squiggle red icing to make veins coming outward. Then you put an M & M in the middle. Easy and they look cool!
I love the googly eye fun! I think it would be great for April Fool's Day, too!
I really enjoy your blog – it gets my brian thinking out side of the box more often. (we are not in the DC area so please just enjoy the ideas. I saw that some one suggested slime, last year we had a mad scientist who let the kids make Gooey gunk (from the Kid Concoctions book series). Why not include learning and science into Halloween. Solution 1 : 1 cup of water and 1 cup of school glue and food coloring is optional (but really fun for Halloween) Solution 2: 1 1/3 cups warm water mixed with 4 tsp Borax laundry soap. Make up each solition and then pour solution 1 into solution 2. The glue globs together and makes great fun gunk. For my boys they found that it also makes fun sounds.
Another idea is fizzle balls (from the same book) You need baking soda, vinegar, a small plastic toy and a lrge bowl of water. Mix baking soda and water together into a stiff dough. Cover the small toy with the dough like substance and let dry. Then ou can drop the fizzle balls into a clear bowl of vinegar which will cause the bubbling reaction and reveil the hidden treasure. For the school party, just finding the treasure might be enough)
HAve a great time!
Hand ghosts are easy. Trace the childs hand in paper and cut it out. They can then color or draw a face or use the cute googly eyes and can be strung around the house. I'm in DC so I hope I win!
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OH my goodness, you guys are awesome! Thanks for the fabulous ideas! I'm sure we'll use some of these, so I can't tell you how much I appreciate this help!!
A winner was chosen for the Boo at the Zoo tickets, thanks to random.org. A crafty mom in VA and her family will hit the zoo on Fri. Happy Halloween!
Good afternoon! I love your fun and adorable ideas. I like that they are so easy to execute. I can't help thinking you would love the 20 Best Halloween Crafts for Kids page on FaveCrafts (http://www.favecrafts.com/Halloween-Kids-Crafts/Top-20-Halloween-Crafts-for-Kids#Halloween-Crafts-for-Preschoolers). There are some really simple crafts for young children. Have a great day!