It’s spooky season, and that can only mean one thing: You’re on the hunt for Halloween party ideas that will make your classroom celebration a spooky success. We know not every school in the US celebrates Halloween, but if you’re teaching in a place where all things creepy and crawly are celebrated at the end of October, you’re in luck!
The teachers on the Teach Starter team have pulled together their favorite party supplies, party games and more from their years in the classroom to present you with the ultimate guide to throwing a Halloween party at school!
Before we dive in, it’s worth a quick reminder that as much as one-third of Americans do not celebrate Halloween, often for religious reasons. If you’re planning a holiday party in the classroom, first check with your admin to ensure you’re not violating a district policy, then make sure parents are on board with the plan so none of your students are left out. You may also want to re-focus your theme simply on fall!
Read on for our teacher team’s favorite kids’ Halloween party ideas, including fun activities, party decor ideas and some fun Halloween games for kids. Many of the ideas on the list will fit perfectly at a fall party for kids as well as one that’s focused on Halloween itself.
Halloween Party Decor Ideas
It’s time to replace that back-to-school bulletin board with a Halloween-themed option, and replace the fall apples with pumpkins to decorate for your Halloween party. We’ve put together a mix of party decorating ideas that incorporate student work and simple suggestions that won’t take a lot of time (or a lot of money!).
Hang String Lights to Add to the Ambience
Halloween is one of those holidays when flipping off the lights to add to the haunting ambience is encouraged, so why not hang some simple holiday-themed string lights (pumpkins come to mind) to help set the tone?
Bring Out the Pumpkins
Adding a few pumpkins to your classroom this time of year is an easy way to bring either fall or Halloween into the classroom, and it has the added benefit of playing right into one of our favorite party games – estimate the weight of the pumpkin (see more below!).
If you plan to create jack o’ lanterns at home by carving the pumpkins prior to bringing them to school, you might want to submerge the carved gourds in bleach for 24 hours or spray the inside with a peppermint oil mixture to reduce the chance that they will rot.
Not planning to carve the fall fruit — or are you hoping to use your party decor for a carving or decorating activity? You may still want to do some work to prevent rotting, especially if the pumpkin will sit for a few weeks. Allowing the uncarved pumpkin to sit in a vinegar and water mixture for half an hour may help extend its life.
Of course, you can skip the real thing and opt for student-created (paper!) pumpkins that won’t get moldy! Print off our Funky Zentangle pumpkins, or any of the other fun characters in our Funky Family:
Prop a Cinnamon Witch’s Broom in the Corner
We all know just how stinky classrooms can get (especially after gym!). Bring the sweet scents of fall into the classroom with a cinnamon broom that can be propped up in a corner as if a witch has visited and left behind her favorite mode of transportation. Add a witch’s hat, and you’ve got simple party decor that doubles as a scent boost.
Update Your Bulletin Board With a Halloween Theme
Whether your students help you create pumpkins with our Hello Pumpkin bulletin board display kit or you print and add our Halloween word wall to your reading corner, there are some easy ways to add a holiday element to your bulletin board.
Check out some of our favorite (and ready to print!) Halloween bulletin board kits to cut down on decorating time:
- Monster-Themed Reading Bulletin Board
- Build a Skeleton Bulletin Board
- Mummy-Themed Reading Bulletin Board
Set Up a Touch and Feel Sensory Box
There’s no need to recreate a life-sized haunted house in the classroom to create an unforgettable creepy experience. Everyday items will do the trick for this Halloween party activity. Collect some shoe boxes and cut a small opening in each lid. Fill each box with different items to create a sensorial experience. Here are some ideas:
- Witches’ Teeth — Candy Corn or Dry Beans
- Slime — Corn Flour and Water
- Maggots — Cold Cooked Rice
- Brains — Cold, Cooked Spaghetti Noodles
- Witches’ Hair — Yarn
Decorate Your Classroom Door for the Holiday
Get kids in the mood for a party before they even set foot inside your classroom and welcome all the little ghosties and goblins to the classroom with a door that’s all decked out for Halloween. Decorating your door offers the chance to show your class’ Halloween spirit off to anyone who walks down the hallway.
Check out some complete classroom door decorating kits:
- Fang-tastic Door Decor
- We Are the Boo Crew Classroom Door Decor
- Red Ribbon Week & Halloween Classroom Door Combo Kit
Halloween Party Games for the Classroom
Now that the decor’s in hand, what exactly do you plan to do during the party?
You can add to the festive fun of your classroom party with some classic Halloween party games! These ideas for teachers are all kid-friendly, and they don’t take much time, so you can fit them into a short classroom party at the end of the school day.
Draw a Pumpkin…Without Looking!
Take the game Heads Up to another level with paper plates. Simply have your students hold a paper plate on top of their head and draw a pumpkin without looking. They can compare and contrast to their friends or flip the plate over and see how differently they can draw a pumpkin while looking afterward.
Mummy Wrapping Race
Use streamers from your local dollar store for an exciting mummy-wrapping race! The pair or team that wraps their mummy the quickest wins.
Pin the Spider On the Web
Take a spin (see what we did there?) on the classic “pin the tail on the donkey” game but replace the donkey with a spider. You can use our Halloween spider silhouette or our (free) spider outline template to help get the game going.
Don’t forget to add a spider “web” — gauzy white material for this can be found at any dollar store this time of year.
Hold a Tongue Twisting Tournament
Challenge your students to a tongue twister tournament with any of these spooky sayings:
- Don’t buy big black cats or blind bats’ blood!
- Gobbling gargoyles gobbled gobbling goblins.
- Which witch wished which wicked wish?
- Dracula digs dreary, dark dungeons.
- Transylvanian Tree Trimmers are trained to trim the tallest Transylvanian trees.
- Ghostly ghouls gather gleefully to golf on ghostly golf courses.
- Hailey hardly ever heard the horrible haunted house‘s Halloween howl.
- Creepy crawler critters crawl through creepy crawly craters.
- Professional Pumpkin Pickers are prone to pick the plumpest pumpkins.
- Seven spindly spiders spin spooky silk speedily.
- Mr. Mummy mustn’t mess up Mrs. Mummy’s make-up.
Play Guess the Weight Games
As we mentioned earlier, adding a real pumpkin to your decor gives you the chance to have each student guess its weight. The student with the closest answer gets to take the pumpkin home!
You can also offer a twist on this idea using a smaller object like candy corn in a jar. The student who guesses the closest gets to bring the jar home.
Bowl With Pumpkins
Another fun way to incorporate pumpkins into your party is to fill small water bottles or soda bottles with sand, and use pumpkins as bowling “balls.” Just make sure you tightly attach the lids! You may even want to add a dab of hot glue, or add a layer of duct tape just to firmly keep the tops in place.
This game is also perfect for a Thanksgiving party.
Play Hot or Cold With a Halloween Twist
Select a single student to hide a small pumpkin or one of the 3D objects from the previous game, then challenge the rest of the class to guess just where it’s hiding. The student who did the honors can direct their classmates using just the words “hot” or “cold.”
Challenge Kids to Spooky Stacking
Decorate clear or white cups with a set of black eyes so they resemble ghosts, and challenge small groups to build the tallest pyramid in a certain amount of time — without knocking it down. You can add to the challenge by printing out these fun (and spooky) Halloween-themed 3D objects. Students should follow the directions to assemble their pumpkin or Frankenstein then put their engineering skills to work as they stack one on top of another.
Make Slime as a Class
OK, it’s not a game, per se, but this classroom activity is a Halloween favorite among the teachers at Teach Starter as it packs a science lesson directly into your party time. Follow the easy directions to make thermochromic slime, and each student can take home their own jar of goo!
Halloween Party Favors for Students
While there’s no need to hand out favors at a classroom party, we realize some teachers like to have a small something on hand for holidays to make their students smile. Or maybe your school offers a costume parade or book character parade, complete with trick or treating? Either way, you don’t have to break the bank with candy-free party favors.
Here are a few favorites, including some easy printables!
- Small jars of slime (directions linked above!)
- Halloween-themed bookmarks
- Small gourds
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