Well, we had a great Halloween, I hope you did, too! In the morning, I went with Thomas to kindergarten for the class party. I discovered last year that being the room mom is a great way to help you kids with food allergies. I can plan treats that my son can have, or make sure he has something just like it. Anyway, I planned the class party and it went pretty well. Here's what I planned in case any of you end up being room mom (and so I can remember what we did).
First off - I delegated (some). I made some calls and found moms to come in and help and also to bring juiceboxes and cookies. Easy.
Next, I planned activity stations. We had 20 kids, so I planned 5 stations. It was easier for the kids to participate this way. Here they are:
Station 1: Lacing spider webs. The idea was from here. I just punched holes around the outside of the plate, and taped a ribbon to the back - the kids laced it through the holes randomly, and then attached a spider ring to it. Fun stuff, but the most challenging station.
Station 2: Memory matching game. This I made from images from Martha's Halloween Bad Things PDF (click on templates). I just cut them out, glued them to paper, copied them onto orange cardstock (x2), and had them laminated. Cute, and I'll definitely be saving these for next year!
Station 3: Coloring page. I just copied the Halloween pages from our Richard Scarry book. Cuter than your typical printable page.
Station 4 (not shown): Bean bag toss. Here is where I was going to make cute felt bean bags in Autumn shapes - but didn't. I knew the teacher had bean bags already, so when I started running out of time, I just decided to use hers. But I did bring a bucket to toss them into, and a playsilk to put on top - it's a fun variation.
Station 5: Pin the face on the pumpkin. This was the station that I manned. I brought a pumpkin (thankfully I remembered not to carve one! Later that day it became a catbus) and also lots of black shapes cut from construction paper (with tape on the back) that could be used to make faces.
This station was interesting, because the group size varied - not all
of the kids rotated to the appropriate group all of the time, so where I should have had 5 groups of 4 I actually had
a couple groups of 2 or 3 and one group of 6. I varied the directions
to the game depending on the number of kids. With 2, it was most fun to let them
sit opposite each other, tape on pieces to make a face, and then spin
the pumpkin around so that the other child could see (and laugh and make
changes). With 3-4 children in the group I let them play with the
pieces for a minute, and then they lined up, and took turns coming up
and closing their eyes (I didn't bring a blindfold - some kids aren't
comfortable in them) and picking up random pieces and sticking them
on to make a face and then showing the group. For the group of 6, they stood in line and took turns picking just
one piece with their eyes closed and sticking it on to make a
collaborative face. Lots of giggles when the finished product was
revealed! It was a hit.
I thought we had a good mix of crafts/games. Some you stood for and some you sat and some were more open-ended than others. It went well. We had 5-6 minutes per station, and I also made sure that each station had a Halloween book at it, in case the kids lost interest or the game went too fast. That was a good idea. After the games we had snack, and then the kids had to go march in the school parade. When that was over, most parents took their kids home, but a few had to wait for the bus. The books came in handy then, too!
I purposely didn't do a 'decorating cookies' activity because I didn't want costumes getting messy first thing in the morning, and also because eating frosting is a bit much first thing in the morning. The stations were all pretty calm, and so were the kids, which surprised the teacher.
I had a mom volunteer for each of the stations, but didn't delegate any of the preparation for them because I had specific things in mind and it was all very easy. Very. And cheap - the only thing I had to buy was plates and ribbon for the spider webs, and I got them at the dollar store. And I spent about $2 at the copy shop. Not too shabby.
Okay, now I'll remember this for next time I'm in charge!
