15 DIY Halloween Party Ideas for the Classroom

Even though Halloween is my second most favorite holiday (next to the Fourth of July), our classroom Halloween party is by far my most favorite classroom party of the year.  Our DIY Halloween party lasts approximately 1.5 hours, with the majority of our party taking place as center rounds.  I typically set up five or six Halloween centers the night before the party.  Some of these centers may contain two or three Halloween games, depending on the quickness of the game.  Each Halloween station lasts about 15 minutes.  During this time, we make Halloween crafts, play Halloween games, and eat lots of yummy Halloween treats!

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Here's a rundown of all of our DIY Halloween games and activities...many of which I have been using year after year!

1.  PUMPKIN BOWLING

These pumpkin bowling pins were made from 2 liter bottles.  I simply wrapped the bottle with orange construction paper and added a pumpkin face.  You could also turn frosted, plastic cups into ghosts, or even paper towel rolls into ghosts by drawing a ghostly face using a black marker.

2.  CAULDRON PUMPKIN TOSS

I grabbed this large cauldron and these plastic pumpkins from the dollar store.  You'll want to line the bottom of the cauldron with black foam to prevent the plastic pumpkins from bouncing out.  Each student tries to toss in the six pumpkins.  The person who makes the most "baskets" wins!

3.  DIGGIN' FOR WITCH'S FINGERS

This Halloween activity is one of my favorites!  Before the party, I bury eyeballs, spiders, cockroaches, and witch fingers in the sand.  Originally, one of the witch fingers was spray painted black.  If you have a sand table in your classroom, you'll be all set.  Otherwise, you can dump some play sand in a large, shallow, plastic container.  Each student will need to be blindfolded before diggin' for the witch's fingers.  The student who finds the black finger first wins!  

After each student digs, we also graph the item he/she found.

4.  PIN THE WART ON THE WITCH

I found this cute witch printable at Hershey's.  We use sticky tack for the warts.  Simply blindfold each student and see who sticks the wart on the witch's nose.

5.  FISHING FOR PUMPKINS

This is an oldie but a goodie, and so easy to prep!  Simply cut out some pumpkins from orange card stock or poster board, add a paperclip to each pumpkin, and use a magnetic fishing pole.  For about five or six years, the kiddos used a DIY magnetic fishing pole that I created using the top insert from an old fishing rod, fishing string and a magnet.  You could also use a wooden dowel to make your fishing rod, or grab these magnetic fishing poles from Lakeshore Learning.

6.  PASS THE PUMPKIN

This game can be played with a small group of children or with the whole class.  I usually play with my entire class.  We sit around the outside of the rug, and I play kid-friendly Halloween songs as the students pass the pumpkin around the circle.  When I stop the music, the student holding the pumpkin goes to the middle (similar to Hot Potato).  I've also played this game with a stuffed ghost.  We just called it "Pass the Ghost."  Really, any Halloween object will work.

7.  SPIDER WEB TOSS

These felt spider webs and giant, plastic spiders were found at the Dollar Tree.  I simply hot glued a point value to the middle of each web (think... target).  The student stands back and toss the spiders.  After tossing all of the spiders, add up the points.  The student with the most points wins!

If you don't want to spread the webs out, you could also line them up in a straight line and assign point values from least to greatest.

8.  EYEBALL / SPIDER RACE

For this game, I have two students race eyeballs across the table for one minute.  I've also played this game using plastic spiders.  Our tables are about four feet long.  One student will stand on each side of the table.  Using a straw, each student blows the eyeball / spider across the table and into a basket hanging at the opposite end.  You could even draw a finish line rather than attaching baskets to the table.  The student who gets the most eyeballs to the opposite end of the table wins!

9.  MR. BONES RELAY

I found this printable skeleton at FamilyFun.com.  I searched and searched, but couldn't find the link to this exact skeleton.  You could definitely use these skeletons here and here and here.  I printed four sets, two on paper and two on white card stock.  Glue the paper skeleton onto a large strip of black construction paper (glue two 12x18 pieces together) or bulletin board paper.  You'll want to make two of these mats and laminate them for durability.  You'll also want to laminate the card stock pieces.  I also traced the outline of each piece onto thick, white foam.  I cut out the foam pieces and glued them to the bottom of the appropriate bone.  This helped make the game pieces a little more durable and less slippery on the skeleton mats.  I like to divide my kiddos into two teams.  I place the bone pieces into two baskets at the opposite end of the skeleton mat.  The first person on each team grabs a bone, runs to the mat, and places the bone in the appropriate place.  The first team to correctly assemble Mr. Bones wins!

10.  HALLOWEEN BUCKET TOSS

Some years, I use these festive buckets in place of the "Caludron Pumpkin Toss" game.  You can toss virtually anything into the buckets... giant spiders, pumpkins, beanbag ghosts.  I found these sand buckets at Michael's, and added the numbers using my Silhoutte Cameo.

11.  Q-TIP SKELETONS

One of my teammates gave me this cute idea a few years ago.  I print and cut out each of my students' faces ahead of time.  A black background looks the best.  And, this might be the only time I've ever used any of my school pictures! ;)

12.  POPSICLE STICK FRANKENSTEIN

These Popsicle stick Frankensteins always turn out so adorable.  You can use regular sized Popsicle sticks, but I like to use the mini ones from Lowe Cornell.  I have a parent prep the squares ahead of time.  I just hot glue the sticks to two Popsicle sticks running horizontally across the back.  The kiddos will paint the front using green tempra paint or green acrylic paint.  The hair and bolts are fun foam from Michael's.  Glue on some googley eyes, and then draw a mouth and stitch mark with a black permanent marker.  I've found that Aileen's tacky glue works the best.  Sometimes, we add magnets to the back so that the parents can hang ol' Frank on the fridge.

13.  MONSTER COOKIES

At one station, the students decorate pumpkin cookie cutouts to look like monsters.  We use candy corn, M & M's, chocolate chips, marshmallows, etc. to make the faces.  I show the students this picture from an old Halloween activity book to help some of my reluctant kiddos think of an idea.  Of course, we have to eat our monster cookies!

I wish I had a picture of the decorated monster cookies to show you.  I will try to remember to take some at the party this year!

14.  HALLOWEEN TREATS

Here are just a few ideas for Halloween treats that would be festive and fun:

15.  VAMPIRE CANDY BOX

And last, but certainly not least!  Of course, the kiddos' most favorite part of the party is passing out Halloween candy to their classmates.  The passing out of the candy occurs at one of the stations... the bowling station to be exact.  Prior to the party, we make these fun vampire shoe boxes.  Simply wrap a shoe box with black paper (trust me... you may want to enlist in a few parent volunteers to do the wrapping), cut out the cape from 9x12 paper, use a circle for the head, draw a vampire face, add some foam vampire fangs, and assemble!  Seriously, my most favorite Halloween craft!

PIN IT

Don't forget it... pin it!  Feel free to pin any of the images above, and/or this image too!

Find more Halloween party ideas on my "Halloween" board on Pinterest.

Plus, you can check out our pumpkin activities by clicking the image below.

Here's to a successful Halloween party!  I promise your kiddos will think these Halloween party ideas are spooktacular!