All posts tagged Halloween

Fall Festival Game Ideas

By | September 24, 2011 | Halloween, Ministry Ideas | 4 Comments
Flickr by mksfly

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’ 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?

 

 

Princess and Warrior Party {Repost}

By | September 22, 2011 | Elementary Age, Halloween, Holidays and Events, Preschoolers | 2 Comments
Crown, princess, king, queen

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!

Planning a Halloween Block Party

By | September 20, 2011 | Games, Halloween, Holidays and Events | 3 Comments
Flickr by David, DeeGee, & Sarah-Lauren

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!

More Halloween Posts:

Who Do We Think We’re Fooling?

Do Not Fear Puppet Skit

Ten on Tuesday: Halloween

Princess and Warrior Party

Halloween Alternatives

Pumpkin and Pajama Party!

Halloween: What Are You Planning?

By | September 18, 2011 | Halloween, Holidays and Events | 2 Comments
Flickr by hjl

It’s a controversial holiday.   I still haven’t quite decided where I land on the whole issue, and it’s only complicated by the fact that now I have my own children to think about!  What about your ministry?  What are planning this year?

For this Halloween, we're planning:

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Pumpkin and Pajama Party!

By | November 4, 2010 | Halloween, Holidays and Events | 2 Comments
Pumpkin

Last night we had our Pumpkin and Pajama Party at the church, and I must say, it was a blast!  We doubled our normal attendance, and had some great fun with people from the community.  My daughter got all dressed up to go, but alas, she was too young for the party!

Check out this Animoto video of all the fun!  As usual, we had a GREAT team of volunteers.  Thanks everyone!

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

We also got a great “God Story” from the party.  I bought all the mini pumpkins we painted at a local farmer’s market.  The owner asked me what I needed all the pumpkins for and I explained they were for a church party.  Then, on a whim (or the prompting of the Holy Spirit), I asked if he wanted to pass out some flyers.  Last night, we had a brand new family attend and when I asked how they heard about the event, they said they got a flyer in their bag at the farmer’s market!  Praise God!

Oh yeah, this post is part of the SITS girls challenge.  A great site where you can learn the best blogging tips, connect with other blogging sisters and find some great blogs.  Check it out!

Who Do We Think We’re Fooling?

By | November 3, 2010 | Halloween, Holidays and Events | 3 Comments
Flickr by mufan96

I’ve been thinking quite a bit about Halloween this year.  Perhaps because I now have my own little rug-rat who will be asking about costumes and candy in a few short years.  Perhaps because I’ve been focusing a bit more on outreach lately.  At any rate, I was reading a post on Stuff Christians Like about the “Hybrid Halloween“.  Jon writes:

It’s not Halloween, it’s not. Is it held in October? Yes. Do kids get candy? Yes. Do kids dress up? Yes. Are there pumpkins involved? Yes. But it’s not Halloween, it’s a “Fall Festival.”

This is pretty much where our church is.  We provide a “Halloween Alternative” (not actually on Halloween, mind you, because the survey we passed out to church members reported that no one would actually skip trick-or-treating to come to the party).  We did the costumes, the fall games, and passed out loads of candy.   Then we condemned anyone who participated in Halloween outside the church. I always thought this might be confusing to unchurched people.   Heck, it’s a bit confusing to me.

This thought was confirmed last Friday when I was talking to one of the day care moms.  She told me about a time she was basically sentenced to hell by a co-worker because she was taking her four year old out trick-or-treating.  She heard the lecture about the evils of the holiday and then was kindly handed a flyer for the co-worker’s church Fall Fest.

Susan (daycare mom) asked: Oh, do they dress up here?

Co-worker:  Of course, and we pass out candy too!

Susan: So, it’s exactly like Halloween, just inside a church?

Co-worker:  No!  It’s nothing like Halloween.  It’s a Fall Fest!

All I could do was shake my head and agree.  I’m still not sure what to think about the whole Hybrid Halloween phenomenon.  I think our church will always do a “Fall Fest”. Our Pumpkin and Pajama party is scheduled for tonight, in fact.  However, I also chose to pass out candy (and flyers for the party) this year to the trick-or-treaters who came to our house.  I guess that’s a balance.  For now, I’ll put it on the shelf and wrestle again with it next year!

Don’t condemn.  Try this instead:

Garage Party

Halloween Outreach Ideas from Children’s Ministry Talk

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