Bright Ideas - Celebrations

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Halloween Party Ideas

Some things to do at your party or meeting!

Make sure you have lots of treats, orange drinks, spooky music, darkened room, and lots of adults to make sure everyone has a good time, and is safe.

Make Special Halloween Candles

Take a glass jar - make sure is very clean and totally dry - one with a flat bottom works the best

For young children - have the girls draw a Halloween picture on yellow tissue paper and cut out some of the shapes - place this sheet on top of orange tissue paper. Tape the outside of the jar - making sure that the paper does not extend above the top of the jar. When it is taped firmly in place put a small canle (tea candle works well) in the bottom and light with a long match. The light will glow through the tissue paper.

Older children could paint the picture on the jar. Make sure the jar has a smooth finish and is throughly cleaned. Use glass painting paints so that they will not run or rub off. Have the girls draw their picture on a piece of paper. Tape the paper inside the jar so that the lines of the drawing show through the glass. The girls paint the picture by following the lines of the drawing. When the painting is done remove the drawing. Place a tea candle in the jar and the candle will reflect the colours of the painting.

It is best to not light the candles at the party - have them take them home and let the parents supervise the candles when no one is running around and really excited.

Make ghostly decorations!

To make simple ghost decorations you will need:

• Cheesecloth (remove the wrinkles by ironing on low heat)
• White balloon
• White plastic garbage bag
• Newspaper
• String
• Sticker eyes, or black tape to make eyes

Blow up the balloon and put it in the garbage bag. Stuff the rest of the bag with newspaper and mold the paper and bag with your hands to look like a ghost body. Tie the bag firmly. Drape the cheescloth over the bag (can hold in place with tape if you like). Use stickers or cut eye shapes from black tape and put on the cheesecloth to make the face.

Have some fun and make a family - use different size balloons, make different faces - even add some bows. Add some ghostly music and you are ready for a party!

Play Some Games

Use an orange nerf ball and make it into a pumpkin. Have the children form a line. Have the first child pick up the nerf pumpkin without using their hands and pass it to the next person - who then passes it to the next and so on. Turn it into a race by having more than one nerf pumpkin and dividing into equal teams.

Do a Scavenger Hunt - For younger children hide things around the meeting room or a house - for older children put the items in the field, out side at a camp site or in a yard. Give each of the children a piece of paper with a message written on it - avoid double letters or cross off duplicate letters (some ideas - Trick or Treat, Candy Apples, Popcorn Balls, Halloween - and sedn the teams off to find things that begin with the first letter of each word in the message. See who can find the most things in a set time.

Instead of pin the tail on the donkey play pin the face on the pumpkin - Cut out a large orange pumpkin and eyes, nose and mouth out of black paper. Blindfold the kids, spin them around and have them see what funny pumpkin faces they can make!

Make a spooky haunted house - cover tables with sheets or blankets and hang things from the under side of the tables and have the girls crawl through the darkened space - things to hang- cooked spaghetti, wiener pieces, rubber cloves - fill with water or ice chips, cheap wig, jello - cut into shapes, peeled grapes, chunks of melon, plastercine stretch out into long strips, and anything else you can think of!

Make Your Own Makeup

Mix cornstarch and cold cream (1 tsp cornstarch to 1/2 tsp of cold cream). When this is completely mixed add water (same amount of water as cornstarch) and stir until completely mixed in. Add food colouring (add is small amounts as it will not take much) to make any colour of face makeup you want - green for a witch, black and white for a vampire, use your imagination and create an alien! Make sure the girls wash their faces completely and then apply with fingertips on large areas and small paint brush for details. Stay well away from the eyes and mouth! Can be removed easily with soap and water

Make Your Own Costume

Be a ScareCrow - take some old jeans and add some patches - use big stitches so they show really well - add an old flannel shirt. Stuff some straw up the cuffs of the shirt so they hang down and around the ankles - can hold in place with tape. Wear a big straw hat and paint on red cheeks and make a cardboard pitch fork and you are ready to go!

Be a Skeleton - wear black tight fitting clothes - take white tape and tape it to the clothes in the pattern of a skeleton. Cover your face with white makeup or grey makeout with black outlines around the eyes and mouth.

Be a Spider - wear black tight fitting clothes - take black tubes of cloth or black nylons and stuff with black fabric - you need eight of these to make the legs. Pin them to the waist of the pants so they hang down almost to the ground (not too long or you will trip). Wear a black hat and paint your face green and you are a spider

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