It’s that time of year again for classroom parties! Last year they consisted of me just packing all of my games/crafts/treats up and leaving them with the teachers since we weren’t allowed to help in class with covid. So to make up for lost time this year, I went a liiiiiitle nuts on the Halloween ideas!

If you are new to being a room mom, I have two tips. One, buy all the shit you can the day after every holiday to use for the next year. And two, have at least 2-3 games and 2 crafts for the kids to do so that they don’t run through everything too fast! The last thing you want is a party that was supposed to last an hour only lasting 20 minutes because you didn’t come armed to the teeth with extra crafts and games for the kiddos.

I am a room mom for both my third grader and kindergartener so I found games and crafts that could cover that three-year age gap easily. Here’s what I have lined up for this year:

Games:

Halloween ring toss: This is always a hit and easy to transport since you can just blow it up when you get to the school. The one I got a couple years ago is a witch hat from Oriental Trading. They don’t have the hat anymore but have this cute spider one!

Pin the nose on the pumpkin OR pin the head on the skeleton: I have both. Insider tip: For preschoolers, the pumpkin one is always a safe bet. Each of these games only comes with 8-10 skeleton heads or pumpkin noses to pin onto the game board. It’s unlikely your child’s class is that small, so just make sure to copy the page of heads/noses first before punching them out of the paper. My third grader has 26 kids in her class so I had to make a few copies of the skeleton heads and then I cut them out. That way, each kid can write their name on the head (or pumpkin nose) and then you don’t have to keep straight who pinned their pieces where!

Halloween Bingo: This one is pretty self explanatory. You can get them here. Just ensure to have an extra bag of candy or small prizes for the winners! You can also use candy corn as the markers if you don’t want to have them mark the boards up or punch out a ton of tiny pumpkin markers like I did. I don’t have the kids use markers because I re-use the same boards every year!

Spider Splat Game: I got this at Target. I will warn you, it only comes with 4 sticky spiders, and if you have a large class, I guarantee these fuckers will lose their stickiness after one round, so buy some of the cheap sticky hands. And then the kids probably won’t get them as gross if they know they get to keep the sticky hands after they toss them on the spider web board.

Tic-Tac-Toe: Another beauty from Target. I don’t think I need to insult your intelligence by explaining this game to you.

Crafts:

Make your own trick-or-treat bag: Does your kid have a plastic jack-o-lantern bucket to trick-or-treat with on Halloween? I’m sure they fucking do. But this is an easy craft and if your kids get to trunk-or-treat at school like mine did in preschool immediately following class, this bag works perfectly. Buy white craft bags from Michaels, some Halloween stickers, and you’re set! The kids can use their own markers and crayons at their desks too, so this craft is as simple as it gets. Below is my youngest, Winnie, decorating her bag!

Color your own Halloween character magnet: I got these off Oriental Trading and they’re really cute and super simple. Just have the kids use the markers in their classroom and the magnet adheres to the back with sticky foam that comes included with the pack.

Make a pumpkin ornament: I got this kit from Michaels. It only has 12 in it so I had to buy five packs to cover both of my girls’ classrooms. In times of covid, I wasn’t sure if the teachers really wanted the entire class reaching into the bins of beads/pipe cleaners, etc. to get the supplies they needed, so I took it to the next level. (See photo below.) I divided all the supplies up to make sure each kid got a set of eyes, a mouth, about 20 tissue squares, foam circles, two pipe cleaners, and about ten beads and then I individually bagged them in baggies. The added bonus is no one can fight or be sad when that one kid takes ALL the eyeballs for his pumpkin. There’s one in every class – just trust me.

Treat Bags:

What would a party be without a parting gift of a bag full of random shit? No party at all in my book. I got all the supplies for mine at Oriental Trading minus a couple things that came from Dollar Tree. Here’s what you’ll need: cellophane treat bags, stretchy skeletons, vampire teeth, Halloween stampers, Halloween pencils with fun eraser toppers, jumping spiders, pumpkins filled with small toys, spider rings, Halloween finger puppets, Halloween stencil/bookmarks, and of course candy!

Parent Volunteers: Listen, running all this shit by yourself can be a lot, depending on class size. I did it alone last year with covid in my youngest daughter’s class and while it is doable, it’s not easy to help 20 young kids with all the games and crafts at once. If you find yourself in that position, (or you have no parents volunteer to help even in non-covid times,) have the kids rotate through stations! Have one table make their pumpkin ornament, then one table decorate their craft bag, then one table play Bingo with the help of the teacher, then one table play ring toss with your help, then one table color their own magnet. And after 10 minutes, have them all move and rotate one table clockwise. You can make it work so it stays organized without risking your sanity.

Food:

Never underestimate the power of a sign-up-genius. Since I tend to bear the load of the costs for the actual games and crafts, I never feel guilty sending out a sign up genius for parents to help with food. I tend to provide tablecloths, napkins, paper plates, and cutlery that I just get at Target or Dollar Tree, and then I ask for 3-4 volunteers for help with food. One to bring juice boxes, and 2-3 to bring their food of choice. If your child is in a classroom with kids with allergies make sure to note that when sending out the sign up genius.

Being room parent can be intimidating, so often times I’ll have friends who want to help assist with parties but don’t want to carry the responsibility of throwing it. Those people tend to shine when you ask them to bring their treat of choice to the party.

However, you’re here for ideas, so if you need food ideas here we go:

Jack-o-lantern sandwiches or quesadillas: Take a piece of bread, use a cookie cutter to cut out a pumpkin face, then put it on top of a piece of cheese and put that on top of another slice of bread. (Or use tortillas.)

Juice boxes OR apple sauce pouches wrapped like mummies. I did this for my preschooler a couple years ago. Just wrap the juice or pouch in white crepe paper, glue on some google eyes and draw a stitched mouth and you’re done!

Monster hands filled with popcorn: Just buy some plastic gloves and fill with popcorn. I will warn you, it took more bags of popcorn than I anticipated to fill these suckers! I also added candy corns at the tip of each finger to look like nails, then slapped a spider ring on them.

Pudding cup graveyards: These are also so simple! Buy pudding, crush up some Oreos and scatter on top of the pudding, and put a gummy worm in it like it’s crawling out of the cup.

I hope you found these tips helpful! Happy Halloween!

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