Another Room Party--Need Ideas PLEASE HELP!!!!!!

I always order from Oriental Trading company. I think I have more fun than the kids do! Good luck.

I'm lead room mom too and been doing this for years. I have found that 4th and 5th grades have been the most fun! Kids still appreciate you and, especially Halloween, you can get into heavier games. Usually, I do snack first (easy snack - fun halloween cookie w/ Goblin punch - gallon of green hawaiian punch, 2 ltr. seven up or ginger ale, quart of sherbet, gummy worms to drape over each, clear glass. Then I go into one big game....if any time is left, I do a couple small games like "pass the _____" (i.e. grossest thing I can find for Halloween)

One game that I have done for a few years is....cooked spaghetti mixed w/ rubber body parts (Target used to sell these cool small rubber body parts - feet, eyeballs, noses, hands...etc...and buy tiny rubber mice...but don't know if you can find them there, now) Line a large box (I have done one box or 3 depending on how we play the game) ...line w/ a large black industrial garbage bag - make arm holes so the kids can't see in. If there are 4 parents, total, ask each of them to make 2 lbs. of cooked spaghetti, one or two days before, add a little oil and place in a large ziplock and refrigerate and bring to party. Place the cooked spaghetti in box, mix in body parts/mice and have them try to find the parts. Rules are...if you take out spaghetti (to keep things from getting out of hand) their turn is over. If someone removes one of the mice...their turn is over...You can do a team game/timed or you can have three teams/timed at one time, using separate boxes. Kids love it.

I have other stuff too for every holiday. Do you have any you would like to share? Just Personal message me. Thanks.

http://www.familyfun.com has some neat ideas usually. Here is what we are doing in our 4th grade

food - cream cheese on raisin bread ghosts (we have a no sweets policy at our school)

http://familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts/season/specialfea...
oragami bats might be neat, we are doing the http://jas.familyfun.go.com/crafts?page=CraftDisplay&...
candeleyebra with our group.

we are going to play a charades type game using this concept where the kids try to guess what the pun costume is http://wondertime.go.com/create-and-play/article/easy-bab...

we are having an eyeball relay - spoons for each group and ping pong balls with a dot in the middle to be the eyeball then have to bring the ping pong ball from one end to the other

and a broom sweep relay - wearing a witch's hat, sweeping a ball of newspaper from one place to another

and we thought of having a Halloween person Scavenger hunt - you know where you have to find someone who was Tigger once, or find someone who likes gum etc.

And another contest to see which group can stuff a yard pumpkin fastest with newspaper.

Hope that helps you!
N., mom to a 4th grader too

Here are some of the things we've done that the kids enjoyed:
+ stacking plastic cups - make teams and see who can stack their cups the highest (and keep them there) in a about two minutes
+ memory game - place items on a covered tray; uncover the tray for about a minute and let the kids study it; cover the tray and see who can remember the most items
+ stuffing ballons - blow up a bunch of baloons to different sizes; get a pair of adult/large long underwear and have one student from each team put them on (pin them together at the waist; see how many balloons each team can stuf into the long underwear in the allotted time (1-2 minutes). You can have the teams take turns.
+ jumbled letters - split the class into teams; come up with some holiday-themed words; cut out paper about 2" squares and write one letter on each piece of paper (give each team the same words); see which team and unscramble the word first.

Good luck!

I love the website kaboose.com it has a lot of great ideas. I am not sure about the halloween party but for the valentine's day we used heart pillows and had two lines of kids and had them race, they had to hop with the pillow in between their legs. Also at christmas they have great craft kits at walmart Usually 15-30 for about $6. Last year we made foam ginger bread houses. Also we made ornaments for the kids and they loved them. I took a cookie cutter in the shape of a ginger bread man and a snow man and santas hat and the kids got to decorate them. We used little gems for the ginger bread man and white paint to look like he was broken. We used little black foam for the snowmans hat and buttons. I have a couple more ideas if you want them.
B.

I would advise buying this months Parenting magazine. It is filled with awesome and cheap ideas on Halloween. It includes everything from treats to costumes. I am a teacher and our class will be making some of the treats in class because they are cheap and look really fun. I hope this helps you out. :)

Hi V.!

What a coincidence! I'm in the same position ( yet again ) with my son's fourth grade class!! I have seen in the passing years that they really don't want much of a craft. I have found some stuff they can color for each holiday that is a pic frame, and give e-1 a copy of their pic ( in costume ) and they seem to love it! Also, this year, I think I'm going to get ahold of a kareoke (sp???) machine, and let the kids go at it! I hope this helps!

you can always reuse ideas. The kids love the classics... over and over again, they will not care- there's always bingo- use candy corn as marketrs, wrap the mummy with toilet paper. read a story, limbo with the witches broom. freeze dance with scary music. Christmas- depending on how much time you can pre- make small gingerbread houses with graham crackers -edible use only frosting (premade) or use hot glue for non edible ones (be sure to tell the kids there's glue :)) and have them decorate them only at the party. have fun-- just reuse or visit the web or library for craft ideas.

You've looked at oriental trading, right? They have tons and tons of crafts to do for every occasion and they have ones for different ages too. For games, how about creating a word hunt with words relating to the holiday - it might be the same idea, but the words change with every holiday?? Maybe you could give your daughter the job of thinking of all of the words, then you could put them into Excel and have her just type in the random letters to fill in the open spaces? Oh, just thought of a website to check for more ideas - amazingmoms.com Good luck!!!

well having been a 1st grade teacher for 5 years before we had children. THANK YOU for being a room parent!!! Teachers really apperciate all your hardwork. Honestly repeating some of your old ideas are fine.

Halloween - get string and have the students turn their chair upside down and make spider webs. Pin the nose on the pumpkin.

X-mas - we decorated cookies.

Valentine's Day - passing the cards take so much time, we did an ice cream party w/toppings.

Oriental Trading Company has some great crafts kits and games that are sold in packages. Their prices are very reasonable also. Checkout their website.

halloween...make popcorn, cut up oranges, cut up apples...you take an couple pairs of old sock & just knot them together...get a broom & they can have relay races...i am trying to think of what else we did...that was many years ago...for Christmas...make vegetable & dip...most kids mainly like carrots...you can also do celery & peanut butter & how about a decorated cookie....i have to think of what else we did....

i loved being a room mom...maybe i will now be able to help with my grandchildren's rooms.

good luck & have fun!!

sincerely

grammie K.

For Halloween we did a version of bobbing for apples. But since there was no way I was getting kids wet, We hung a string from the ceiling and strung the string though a dounut hole. Have the kids put their hands behind their backs and try to get the dounut in her mouth. It is much harder then it sounds and easy to put together. If you have the party in the morning it is very fitting too.