All posts in Halloween

Pumpkin Face Bulletin Board

By Lindsey | October 31, 2012 | Fall, Halloween, Ministry Ideas | No comments

Looking for an easy fall bulletin board idea to celebrate the kids in your class?

Why not design a one-of-a-kind pumpkin patch?

Let’s Get Started!

Here’s What You Need:

Orange Construction Paper
Poster Board
Pumpkin Template (Of course, I can no longer find the one I used!!!)
Pictures of your kids
Orange Sharpie
Green Sharpie

Here’s What You Do:

Print one pumpkin template and cut a small oval-like shape out of the middle to create a space for each picture.

Trace this template onto the orange construction paper — one pumpkin for every child.

Draw black lines on the pumpkin. Start with a straight line in the middle and then fan out to the edges.

Cut out pumpkins. Glue child’s face onto the poster board first (after you’ve trimmed around the face). Glue the pumpkin top and bottom over the edge of the picture.

Add “The Cutest Pumpkins in the Patch” title and some little squiggly lines around the edge for embellishments. I also threw in some squiggly green vines around the pumpkins.

That’s it!

Good work!

Got your own great Fall-Themed Bulletin Board Idea? Leave me a comment (or a link) and share!

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Grab a Pumpkin. Join the Team.

By Lindsey | October 13, 2012 | Halloween, Holidays and Events, Ministry Ideas | 1 Comment

I’ve heard the bulletin is the worst place to look for volunteers. Personally, I read the bulletin cover to cover every week, usually during offering, so I’m still a believer. It’s a great place to INTRODUCE the congregation to a serving opportunity, but it doesn’t always provide them with an chance to make a commitment. Usually by the time the last hymn is sung, the crayons are gathered, the Bibles are packed and the hellos are said, the average person has forgotten all about their intention to find you and sign up for the Halloween Block Party.

This year, we decided to try a different approach. We placed this display near the coffee table in the gym.

The idea is for people to pick a job they are interested in and then write their name on one of the blanks. Instant commitment. We wanted to write out the jobs so people had something specific to sign up for instead of the generic “Yes, I’ll help with the Halloween Block Party”. I think it helps people envision the night a little better. Gives them more of a chance to say, “Hey, that sounds like fun!”

Here’s a closer look:

Want to make your own?

Here’s what you need:

Foam Board
Pumpkin Templates (try here or here)
Orange Paper
Sharpie

Here’s what to do:

Figure out how many jobs you’ll need and print a coordinating amount of pumpkins. You can find lots of options by Googling “pumpkin coloring page”. You can feed orange paper into a printer either through the bypass tray or by opening up the drawer and putting it over the white paper. After they are printed, cut them out and write the the type of job across the top. Slap a couple of blanks so people can write their names and glue all your pumpkins to a piece of foam board. Label the display and set up on an easel. That’s it! Nice job!

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Go Ahead, I Dare You.

By Lindsey | September 28, 2011 | Halloween, Volunteers | 3 Comments

Go ahead, try to over-communicate with your team members or the parents in your ministry. I’m convinced it’s pretty tough to do.

Things you think are totally evident are apparently not evident at all. At least that’s what I seem to be finding out.

For example, I recently put out a call for people to save their toilet paper and paper towel rolls so we could use them for a craft during our Summer Storytime in the Park. Of course, people were happy to oblige.

Now, I was thinking people would just bring in the rolls when they got a small stack so we could add them to the collection.

Everyone else was thinking, “I’ll just keep accumulating these at home until I hear otherwise”. A few people (my parents and grandma) felt free to ask when I needed them, but everyone else just kept to themselves.

As a result, we didn’t have as many rolls to use at Storytime and people’s homes were slowly being overrun with little cardboard tubes. A few people must have reached a breaking point, because about the last week of August, my office suddenly started receiving many a bag of rolls. Of course, we no longer needed them for Summer Story-time, so I decided to play a tower building game during our regularly schedule Wednesday night Kids’ Club.

Awarded Most Creative

Eventually awarded "Tallest Tower"

It was pretty fun, but here’s the kicker: As soon as parents started to stroll in to pick up their kids, I started hearing things like “Oh, do you need those now?” “I’ve got a whole TON of those at home!” “Oh, should I bring mine in?”

WHAT?!?

I really blew this one.

So, I guess I’ll be trying to think of some cool crafts to do at our Halloween Block Party with all our newly acquired toilet paper rolls.

The point is, you’ve got to communicate with your people. A lot. More than you think you should have to. Just because something makes sense in your head does not mean everyone around you is catching the full vision. I should have posted in the newsletter about WHEN we’d need those rolls, not just WHAT we’d be using them for. I should have put a GIANT sign outside my office announcing “NOW COLLECTING PAPER TOWEL ROLLS” and included a deadline.

This is a crucial thing I’m coming to realize in my ministry. I simply cannot over-communicate to parents and team members. Because I tend to avoid direct communication in general (I blame this on facebook), it’s an area I need to be especially conscious of.

What About You?

What blooper has befallen you because of lack of communication? I’d love to hear about it!

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Fall Festival Game Ideas

By Lindsey | September 24, 2011 | Halloween, Ministry Ideas | 11 Comments

I love Pinterest. Well, I love the idea of Pinterest. I like bookmarking things and keeping collections of things I love. I “pin” a lot of things, and then quickly forget about them and never look at my Pin page again (I’m not even sure how to directly access it!). At any rate, I thought I’d actually use this fabulous site for something useful — finding great games for a Halloween Block Party or some other Fall Festival you’ll be holding at church. Check out the list of games and needed supplies below.

Toddler Skeeball: diaper box, empty yogurt containers, small balls, printer (might want to cover box with butcher paper)

Oscar’s Trash Can Toss: metal bucket, picture of Oscar the grouch, some crumpled paper wads. Click on the game title and scroll down for a picture.

Super Hero Bean Bag Toss: Tall piece of cardboard, paint, bean bags. All I could find was a picture, so you’ll have to wing it on this one!

Ball Toss and Quarterback Test: Laundry basket, whiffleballs, football, hoola hoop

Another Bean Bag Toss: Pumpkins: I don’t think this needs explaining. :) (Though, full instructions are here)

Star Seeker: Recruit some handy men to build this fun game!

Penny Pitch Game: You’ll need large Sheet of Foam Core or Wood, Paint or Polka Dot Tablecloth/Wrapping Paper, Duct Tape, Buckets, Dustpan and Broom, Pouch, A lot of Pennies

Can Toss: Kids either rack up a certain number of points or aim for a certain can — you decide! You’ll need some old cans covered with orange construction paper or other fall colors with numbers written on the outside. Check out the website for a sample picture.

Pass the Pumpkin: You’ll need a pumpkin and a place for kids to sit down. Have the children sit in a circle. Start music and have them pass a small pumpkin around the circle. When the music stops, the one that is caught with the pumpkin is out. Continue to you have a winner.

Fall Themed Bingo: Make a card similar to this, but no witchy stuff. Kids seem to love this game! Plus the cards are reusable if you cover them with poker chips or something similar (pennies maybe?).

Pumpkin Paper Plates: Here’s a cute craft made with orange paper plates. The threading of the yarn would make it a longer project for older kids. Looks like you also need a hole puncher, some construction paper, and a craft stick. These can also be constructed as noise makers — check out the full instructions here.

A few more I thought of along the way:

What Is It: Take close up pictures of every day items and then glue them to a poster board. Try to have kids guess what the objects are. If they can guess 3 correctly, they get a prize.

Candy Corn Toss: Toss Candy corn into pumpkins or buckets. Have starting lines marked for different ages and set a goal amount — like 3 successful tosses gets you a piece of candy. You could also use beads or pennies so people wouldn’t eat all the game pieces!

What about you?

What games have you found to be a real hit at the Fall Fest?

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Princess and Warrior Party {Repost}

By Lindsey | September 22, 2011 | Elementary Age, Halloween, Holidays and Events, Preschoolers | 2 Comments

In 2009, for our Fall/Halloween party at church, we did a Princess and Warrior theme. The girls came dressed as princesses, sat at lovely decorated tables and ate princess pink pancakes. Afterwards, they watched a skit about Queen Esther. The boys met at a “campsite” in the gym, with the lights dimmed and fake fires blazing. They munched on hot dogs and then participated in a skit about Gideon. It was a complete blast! Check out some of the pictures below.

Princess Table

Warrior Table

Princesses eating pancakes

Warriors in battle

Want more details? Leave me a comment and let me know!

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Planning a Halloween Block Party

By Lindsey | September 20, 2011 | Games, Halloween, Holidays and Events | 3 Comments

As a child, we never celebrated Halloween. We closed the door, turned off the light, and had a family night. I grew up knowing the roots of Halloween are not something to be celebrated, and I still agree with that sentiment. As a parent, I might continue in this tradition. However, I’m not just a parent — I’m also a Children’s Ministry Director, and as such, it’s my job to really shine the light of Jesus into the community.

I was listening to Children’s Ministry Talk last year and they advocated having a block party or driveway party with songs, puppets, and maybe a few games. It sounded like a great idea, but a little tough to pull off as far as drawing crowds in. Our church is pretty suburban and doesn’t draw a huge crowd of kids. However, when I found out that one of our congregation members lives in a cul-de-sac that has around 300 kids stop by on Halloween, I figured we had found our solution.

This year, we’re planning a block party. I’ll admit, I’m a little nervous. When we’ve had a party at the church, we’ve gotten 5-10 guests. But meeting 300 new kids and their parents in one night? And trying to plan and pull off a great party (that leaves them talking) with a limited budget? This is going to be a task!

I picked up the latest issue of Oriental Trading’s Faith and Fun catalog to try to gather up some ideas (Bonus, you get a $10 gift card when you spend $59 or more right now!). At first, I thought about some of the craft kits, but with 300 potential participants, that will rack up the cost fast. Here’s a few other things I thought of:

Pin the Leaf on the Tree Game

Using these self-adhesive foam leaves (no tape, less trouble!), kids can try to pin leaves on a tree drawn onto some butcher paper. Mark an “X’ on one of the branches to give the kids something to aim for. At 500 pieces for $8.00, that a pretty good deal! Make several trees ahead of time in case the branches get too crowded.

Leaf Stamps

You could set up craft table, and let the kids stamp with these leaf stamps. Ink pads might be a little pricey, but if you have leftover paint from other projects (washable!), you could have kids dip the stamps in that for a nice leaf place mat or other piece of art. Also at the craft table could be Halloween or Harvest coloring pages from Ministry to Children. I also searched around for some harvest crafts using toilet paper rolls (did I mention I have an abundance of these due to a little mis-communication?). I found some instructions for a kaleidoscope here and here, but it might be a little complicated for this venue. Binoculars might be a thought.

Matching Duck Game

Using these ducks, kids try to match numbers that are preprinted on the bottom. Grab your kiddie pool and this set for $10 and you’ve got a quick and easy festival game!

*Update: Looks like the original set is sold old. Try one of these sets instead.

Classics

They don’t call them classics for nothing! We might also include some of these games: Bobbing for apples, Ring Toss (using pumpkins as the target), Knock over the Can, Limbo, Eat the Dangling Donut, Guess how much candy in the jar, and other things like this. Family Fun magazine usually has some great ideas including this giant Twister game or giant Marbles game. Minute to Win It Games (at stations) might be good too. If you’re on Pinterest, you can grab some great ideas there too (maybe I’ll post on this later!)

Decorations

You won’t need too much — the activity will draw a crowd, but throwing some of these Jesus balloons around can’t hurt!

Prizes

Of course, you need some kind of prizes for the kids to take home. Candy is an obvious choice (I’d order from here). I also spotted these cool Bible verse coins:

They are $5 for 144 pieces, so it might not be too bad, and the kids would have some Scripture to take home, not just sugar. They also have “He Lives” coins, and Kindness coins if you’re looking for a little variety (same price).

Your Ideas Are Welcome!

What are you planning this year? I’d love to hear about it!