My group's Fall event, which was just started last year, is called the "Harvest Hoopla". It is an in-school evening event with a DJ, free raffles, free prizes, party games, a bake sale and a "fun house". Here's what we came up with last year...
For $3 for one child, maximum of $5 per family (so no one is having to pay too much - and we give the teachers each a couple of free entrees for those who wouldn't be able to come otherwise), each child is entitled to 3 raffle game tickets, 1 ticket for the fun house and entry. Let me break each down...
- The raffle games are quick mini-party games. As the child plays they get to put the raffle ticket into the raffle, free. Depending on how they do they get extra chances. Here's the different games we have...
Beanbag throw - I used a 3/4" plywood board and drew a large pumpkin. I then cut it out, including the eyes, nose and mouth. Painted it to look good and there you go, instant beanbag toss. Three chances. Miss all three, get one raffle chance. Get one extra for each throw, plus an extra one of you get all three in...
Ring Toss - Requested donations from the local nurseries. Used various sized pumpkins with the longer stems. Bought wooden rings at the local craft store. Simply ring the pumpkin stems. One raffle chance if you miss, one extra for all three tries that you get on, with a fifth if you get all three on...
Gourd Bolwing - Had this last year. Purchased the plastic bowling pins and used them as the target, with three different gourds as the "ball". Problems: The gourds got mushy and it was very time consuming putting the pins up. This year we did away with this and will be going with...
Ping-Pong Ball Throw - purchased ten $1 plastic pumpkin containers (what is used for trick-or-treating). Five chances to toss the ping pong balls into the pumpkins.
- Had free raffles throughout the evening for things like school spirit wear/items and other small priced things/donation. At the end of the evening WebKinz were raffled off...
-DJ games. For the DJ games we had the Mummy Wrap. Simply one child and one adult team up. The child wraps the adult in toilet paper until the roll is used up. Winning child received a WebKinz. We also had the Monster Mash dance off. All children dance and a panel picks the "best" five dancers. These dancers are brought on-stage to dance. In this case we have them dance "like a monster" to Michael Jackson's Thriller. The audience picks the "best", who wins a WebKinz.
-The Fun House. This was the big one people. The kids loved this more than anything else. Using my old pool cover and some tarps, etc, we created three room. The first room is the pumpkin patch where we put some hay, corn stalks and pumpkin/gourdes. Just for affect. Since we are K-4 we do not go scary. The first room was the Mad Sceintist. We had black lighting, neon, electricity ball and science type experiments. Kids got to help. The last room was the old hags, who needed help making a brew in a large cauldron. The kids helped the old hags get the potion ingredients from labeled containers, such as Zombie teeth, bats wings, lizard tails, etc. Used things like twizzlers for the tails, dried corn kernels for the teeth, mushy grapes for eyeballs, etc.
This year, because we don't want to do the same old thing, we are changing it up to a wizard's room and a fortune teller. The wizard is going to cast a couple of spells, and the fortune teller is going to tell horoscopes and palm reading.
We allowed the kids to wear appropriate costumes, no gore, no masks, nothing scary. Prizes were not awarded for costumes as we didn't want to make those who are against such things "have" to wear them.
This year we are including a pumpkin carving/decorating contest. The kids will decorate or carve a pumpkin at home, hopefully with an adult (we'll state such in the flier). Bring it in (supplied with a flashlight - no candles) and display it within the pumpkin patch room, off to the side so the kids can't touch them. Prizes will be awarded for different categories and the kids take them home at the end of the night.
This is really such a low cost event, but many parents and childen said it was the best one we had last year. If we had some of the party store items that you'll be able to have, wow!!! is all I can say.
Hope this helps and good luck.
PresidentJim
