Halloween Games

Hocus Pocus
Say: “Hocus, Pocus, Ala Kazam!
Turn into dogs, if you can!”
To change all animals back into kids:
Say: “Hocus Pocus Ala Kazam!
Now turn back into you!”
Dog, cat, bird, cow, rabbit, fish, horse, sheep, ghost, witch, etc.

Pumpkin Hoop Toss
Use a Hoola Hoop and try to “ring” it around a large pumpkin.

Pumpkin Roll Race
Let kids race while rolling a medium sized pumpkin. You could also make this a relay race.

Ghost Bowling
Cut circles of white sheeting large enough to cover a set of child’s bowling pins. Tie on the costumes and add face details with a permanent marker. Play bowling.

Put out the candle
Light a large candle & let the kids put it out by wetting it with a squirt gun. You might want to have several candles handy as they get hard to light after they have been wetted a few times.

Toss the Rat in the Haunted House
Take a large sheet of cardboard or a large cardboard box. Draw a haunted house front on it, but cutting out large holes for the windows. Get some toy rats, mice, spiders, etc., and let the kids take turns tossing them in the box.

Pumpkin Bean Bag Toss
Make a cardboard pumpkin with eyes, nose, and mouth cut out. Object is to throw a bean bag in an opening

The Snake crawl Collect lots of large boxes, attach together to form a maze, add a couple of dead ends, hang fake spider webs, spiders, stripes of paper, whatever... Would have to be in large room or outside. Children enjoy crawling through to find the exit

Feed the Spider
This is a revised version of Pin the Tail on the Donkey. On a large piece of white butcher paper or tag board, draw a spider web with a black felt pen. Draw a large spider on the web, at a place of your choosing. Cut out various shapes of green, brown, orange or yellow contruction paper for bugs. Allow the children to decorate their own bugs with crayons or felt pens. (You can also use Creepy Crawlers TM.) Place a piece of double stick tape on the underside of the bug. Explain to the children how they will be blind-folded and will try to feed the spider with the bug, and that the bug closest to the spider will win a prize. It is usually best to demonstrate with an older child first.

WHO IS THE GHOSTIE?
Have the children lay down on the floor putting their noses to the carpet. (This way you know they are not peeking - You physically cannot peek if your nose is on the floor.) Cover one of the children with a sheet, and ask “Who is the ghostie?” - the cue that they can sit up. When they sit up the sheet-covered child will look like a ghost and the other children will have to look around to see who is missing.

Around Halloween read Stellaluna (the fruit bat story) and The Very Busy Spider.
To go with the spider story have the children make a spider web using Styrofoam plates and yarn. Use white Styrofoam plates and black yarn. Cut small slits all around the outside of the plate, about every 2 inches or so. Use a large piece of yarn to spin a web by putting the yarn in one of the slits and then weaving the yarn back and forth and around, using the slits--criss-cross, diagonal, etc, putting the yarn in the slits. Each slit will be used more than once. When there is just a few inches of yarn left, maybe 4 inches or so, tie a spider ring on the yarn so it looks like the spider has spun the web. Walk around the room chanting
"This little spider went out to play,
Out on a spider web one day.
I had such enormous fun
I called for another spider to come."
Then I call a child's name and have them "hook on" the web by holding my waist.
"2 spiders went out to play,
Out on a spider web one day.
They had such enormous fun,
They called for another spider to come."
Then the child calls for another "spider". And so on until everyone is hooked. Then, when everyone is on the web, and marching around, say:
"Fifteen (or however many spiders you have!) went out to play ,
Out on a spider web one day.
They had such enormous fun,
That they forgot to watch the web and it (clap) Broke!
And they All fell down! " And then we all fall!

THE BOO MASK is a mask that a child can hold up to his face and remove when desired. Eyes look through the O's in BOO. Cut out of black paper. Add Popsicle stick handle and colorful streamers on the side

Make a mystery box by cutting an opening about 2 inches high on one narrow side and another opening about 4 inches high on the opposite side. Decorate the box as you like with glitter glue, stampers, and markers. Have someone put objects into the box one by one through the large opening. The Guesser puts his hand through the small hole and tries to figure out what each object is by feeling it.
Items to place inside box:
Tarantula---Twisted chenille sticks
Spiderweb-- Coat string with a mixture of white glue and water. Let dry. Worms--Cook pasta
Eyeballls-- Peeled grapes or hardboiled eggs
Mice or Mole-- Fake Fur
Teeth-- Tines of a plastic fork

SHARP SHOOTING
Using a shampoo bottle that is decorated to look like Halloween. Spray paint it orange with BOO written on it etc...Decorate some ping-pong balls to look like Jack-o-Lantern faces. I just draw on the face using black markers. Fill the shampoo bottle with water to give it some weight .I set the shampoo bottle on top of a large tray to help catch the ping-pong ball. Now give the child a water gun & let them shoot the ping-pong ball off that sits on top of the shampoo bottle.

PUT THE WART ON THE WITCH
I painted a nice witch on a piece of plywood. You can also do this with cardboard or poster board. The children wear a blindfold & attempt to put a round green sticker on the nose of the witch. Give the child an item from the goodie bag.

Pin the tail on the black cat.

Boo Walk
Print out paper size pictures related to your party theme. Laminate or contact for durability. Make small note card size copy of each picture. Tape the large pics to the floor in a circle. Add music and a bucket to draw the smaller pics out of and you have a cake-walk-type-game. We used goodie bags one year and then just trinkets the following year. Kids LOVE this game.

Ghost Pin Drop
Make ghosts out of clothes pins, square piece of cotton cloth, yarn, cotton balls and marker. Place cotton ball in the pincher of the clothes pin and cover with cloth and tie it on. Use different candy buckets for tossing into (plastic buckets shaped like jack-o-lantern, ghost, bat.)

Balloon Break
We use a large piece of thick Styrofoam board. Paint it to look like your party theme. Attach tons of small balloons with thumb tacks and use darts to toss at. Adult supervision required.

BATS FLY: Make fishing pole by attaching string to wooden dowel. Tie a magnet to loose end of string. Attach paper clip to black paper bats. Place bats in tub. Player fishes for bat and makes it fly into sack.
WORMS IN WITCH'S BREW: Use a large kettle with 4" of water which contains a small amount of black tempera. In kettle, place rubber worms (found at sporting goods stores), colored rubber bands, or S-shaped Styrofoam packing pieces. Player reaches into kettle, grasps a handful of"worms" and counts them. A treat is received for each "worm" counted.
FEED THE JACK-O-LANTERN: Make a jack-o-lantern on the outside of a box. Remove large mouth. Player tosses bean bags into mouth.
SEARCH FOR PIRATES' TREASURE CHEST: Player searches for treasure by completing obstacle course. Examples for course are walk plank on balance beams, climb steps, wiggle through chairs and crawl through tunnel made by covering table with sheet.
RAT IN HIS HOLE: Player stands beside quart jar and ropes clothespins or rubber rats (found at pet stores) into jar.
WITCH'S RING TOSS: Stand broom between two chairs or in pail. Cut rings from plastic bleach bottle. Cut bottom from bottle with a knife. Cut 1" above bottom opening to form ring. Make several. Player tosses rings at broom from designated distance.
SQUIRT JACK: Place plastic tarp under and behind jack-o-lantern. Have pail of water and extra candles to replace soaked ones. Light candles inside Jack. Player uses squirt gun to extinguish flames.
BOB FOR APPLES: Attach whole or sliced apple to string suspended from climbing equipment or broomstick held by two adults. Player holds hands behind back and catches apple with teeth.
TRICK OR TREAT: Adult stands behind a door. Child knocks on door and adult opens it. Child says, "Trick or treat" Adult has child do a trick before he receives a treat. Examples of trick are jump, hop, make animal noise, etc.
SHAVE JACK Inflate and tie end of orange balloon. Paint jack-o-lantern face on it. Cover balloon with shaving cream. Player shaves Jack with bladeless razor.
MAKE-UP BOOTH - Apply a small amount of cold cream to face before applying make-up. Provide rouge, powder, eyebrow pencil, eye shadow, lipstick, and cold cream for removal of make-up. Cotton-tipped swabs can be used to apply make-up.
CATCH THE GHOST. Inflate a white balloon for ghost. Do not tie end. Player re-leases balloon and tries to catch the ghost before it touches the ground.
PUMPKIN PUSH: Place inflated, round, orange balloon at starting line. At signal, player kicks balloon to finish line.

Halloween Game
(Tune: Farmer in the Dell)
The pumpkin in the patch,
The pumpkin in the patch,
Hi-Ho on Halloween
The pumpkin's in the patch!
The pumpkin takes a bat,
The pumpkin takes a bat
Hi-Ho on Halloween
The pumpkin takes a bat.
The bat takes a witch
The bat takes a witch
Hi-ho on Halloween
The bat takes a witch
The witch takes a ghost
The witch takes a ghost
Hi-Ho on Halloween
The witch takes a ghost.
The ghost says "Boo!"
The ghost says "Boo!"
Hi-Ho on Halloween
The ghost says "Boo!"
(We sometimes play this during our Halloween party, when the children are in costume. We call them by character--princess, queen, ninja, etc.)

The Owl Goes "Whoo!"
(Tune: Farmer in the Dell)
The owl goes "Whoo!"
The owl goes "Whoo!"
Hi Ho on Halloween,
The owl goes "Whoo!"
The ghost goes "Boo!"
The ghost goes "Boo!"
Hi Ho on Halloween
The ghost goes "Boo!"
The cat goes "Me-ow"
The cat goes "Me-ow"
Hi Ho on Halloween
The cat goes "Me-ow"
The witch goes "EEEEEEE"
The witch goes "EEEEEEE"
Hi Ho on Halloween
The witch goes "EEEEEEE"!
I Went Trick- Or- Treating...

Pass The Pumpkin...
WHAT YOU NEED: Hallow plastic pumpkin, crayons, paper. Put crayons in pumpkin. The players sit in a circle. Music plays, the players pass the pumpkin. When the music stops, the child holding the pumpkin reaches in and pulls out a crayon. The child must name the color and place in the middle of the circle. Once everyone has had a turn or two, dump all the colors in the middle and make Halloween pictures. "Spooky Walk" (Similar to a bear hunt)
We're gonna take a walk to a place that's dark and spooky. It might be kind of strange, and creepy and kooky. I look out up ahead but my eyes can barely see! We're going in tall grass , stay together, follow me! In the end we enter a "cave" and after some spooky sounds we "run" back home. (Hand slapping thight, not actual running.) It is my classes perennial favorite each year for Halloween. Long into spring they'll still be asking for the spooky walk.

An obstacle course is fun. Set up some simple obstacle course (carpet squares, hula hoops, etc.) and scatter Halloween symbols around. After the child reaches the end, he/she wins a Halloween favor.

Spooky Doo
Hello ___________(insert child's name), Spooky Doo!
What kind of trick are you going to do?
Will you bend, or laugh or spin around?
Twist or wiggle or touch the ground?
(The child does their “trick“)

Ghost Toss
Make a wooden plywood backboard with painted ghost - holes where eyes/mouth are - The kids throw ghostpins (cotton ball pinched in a clothespin and covered with a little cut piece of white cloth).

Spider fishing
Use the metal tops from juice concentrate - paint one side black - hot glue pipe cleaners to make legs. Add some kind of prize system to the underside - color coded or picture coded - and use a magnet on a fishing pole to fish for spiders - lay out a big spider web painted onto a poster board to make it look cool.

Don't forget to have an adult doing good ol' face painting--the kids love it!!

Boo, Ghost
Halloween version of duck, duck goose!

"Skeleton Skeleton where' s your bone?"
This is a simple variation of the old favorite, "Doggy doggy where's your bone.”

Witch Relay Race
Need: 2 cone shaped witch hats
2 small brooms
Divide children into two teams of witches. Have them stand in two lines next to each other. Give each group a broom Place two witches hats at the opposite end of the room or yard. When you say "witches fly" the first child in each line must climb on their broom, run to the hat, run around the hat and then run back to their group. The first child hands the broom to the next child in line. The first group of witches to finish the race wins.

Pumpkin Hopscotch
Allow children to use their gross motor skills & number recognition by playing Pumpkin Hopscotch. Use 10 pieces of heavy cardboard, or posterboard. Number the cards 1-10, drawing the corresponding number of pumpkins. Arrange on the floor in the traditional hopscotch pattern. Tape the cards to the floor. Allow the child 2 or 3 turns.

Halloween Toilet Paper Fashion Contest
Have two or more teams of players. The object is to design the best looking mummy with a roll or two (or more depending on brand) of toilet paper. Each team picks someone to be the mummy. On the word "go" each team then wraps the person with the toilet paper (adults be sure they do not cover their mouth, nose, or eyes!). Be sure the mummy sticks their hands out in front so their hands do not get wrapped to their bodies. Give them a time limit (5 minutes max) to do this. Take pictures.

Halloween Toe Mural
Use a large piece of butcher paper (white) for a mural. Instead of finger painting - do "toe" painting with a Halloween theme. Kids must dip their toes and/or feet into pie pans of different color water paints. This should be hilarious. You could even divide up the kids into several groups to have several different murals. Award prizes for creativity, funny, scary, etc.

GET OFF MY HAT
YOU NEED: -Big brown paper bag -Pencil -Scissors -Record player or radio
1) Cut the bag so that you can open it out flat.
2) Draw a big witch's hat and cut it out.
3) At the party, put the hat on the floor.
4) The players get into a straight line and shut their eyes.
5) A leader is at the front to see that no one peeks. Whoever peeks is out of the game.
6) When the music starts, the players walk back and forth across the hat.
7) Any player on the hat when the music stops is out of the game.
8) The last player left wins.

Pin the Eyes on the Ghost
Outline a ghost on a large piece of oaktag & tape it to a wall. Make eyes out of black construction paper and put two-sided tape on the back. Blindfold the children and "Pin the eyes on the ghost!