Halloween Party Ideas for Preschool and Kindergarten

One week till Halloween.

Wooooo...and it's time to plan the Halloween party.  

I thought I'd repost some ideas that have worked for our parties in the past. 

Before I show you some pics and ideas for Halloween,

 I want to let you know that for the next two days (October 25th and 26th), I am offering a 20% OFF SALE on my favourite Fall Resource below.

I use this set of songs with magnet/felt board images

 every year.

Why?  Because the kids love it and the songs are catchy and easy to remember!

Take a look at the contents below!

Check it out HERE!

Next, on to Halloween Party Ideas!

One game that is always really popular with our class is GHOST CATCHER.  

I was introduced to this game by my co-teacher.  

It's easy to set-up, and super fun for the kids to play. 

All you need is a few empty, clean 4L milk jugs (cut off the bottoms) and some white paper towel ghosts on a string.

One or two children pull the ghosts around on the table.  

The other children hold a milk jug by the handle and try to catch the ghosts.  

Through the course of playing, the milk jug can get banged kind of hard on the table, so you might want a backup jug or two in case one of them gets bent.  

Another stand-by at our parties is PUMPKIN GOLF. 

   

All you do is carve a pumpkin with a nice big, low mouth and insert the end of a paper ramp right into it.  

To keep the ball from rolling off, make sure that you bend the bristol board ramp along the edges!  

At our PUMPKIN STATION 

we have a couple of different options.

Here the kids are drawing faces and colouring the pumpkins with markers.

We leave out a supply of Halloween stickers that they can add, too.

They can also use a hammer to pound in some golf pegs.

For another twist, give the kids some elastics to attach around the pegs to create a geo board!

For a group activity, I'd recommend trying the
 MOVEMENT SONG, 
"Looking for Dracula" by Charlotte Diamond. 

"Looking for Dracula" is similar to the 

"Going on a Bear Hunt song," 

but it has a Halloween theme. 

You can find it on her 10 Carrot Diamonds CD.

In the mix, we also have:

 BOWLING with the pins decorated like ghosts,

BALLOON TENNIS using balloons and paper plates
(check in another party post HERE for details)

a COSTUME PARADE through our building

and then a POTLUCK LUNCH with parents.

Hope that gives you some new ideas! 

On sale now!

FREE Clip Art Set to go with a Bakery Theme!

Halloween is almost here and I've got "treats on the brain!"  

Maybe that's why I've been inspired to create 
this new Bakery Clip Art Set!

It contains everything you need to set up some fun Bakery themed resources!

And then I moved on to creating a place to display the baked goods with this set of...

FREE Glass Cake Stands 

There are 4 png cake stands in the pack
 (blackline, black and white, colour, and partial colour).  

You're welcome to download the set from my 

Chirp Graphics shop HERE!

Make sure you sign up as a shop follower while you're there so that you can scoop up the next freebie!

Thanksgiving Turkey Crafts for Preschool and Kindergarten

We made two turkey cuties this past week at preschool.

   I think the parents were as excited to have them as the kids were to make them!  

(Everyone likes to have a festive house, right?)

Here's how we created them.

Playdough Turkeys

Teacher Prep:

• we made some homemade PLAYDOUGH in a shade of brown (Clay would be better, but playdough is cheaper! :))
• we prepared the "turkey heads and bodies" by sticking a pipecleaner in the bottom ball and then poking the head on top

(This step helps keep the head from detaching.)

The children then:

• Pressed in some GOOGLY EYES

• Added PIPECLEANERS for the BEAK, "WATTLE" (that red thing by the beak:)) and LEGS  

• Poked in an assortment of FEATHERS in fall colours for the wings

And, voila!  The perfect little turkey for your Thanksgiving table!

Turkey Long Legs

Teacher prep:

• We cut TURKEY BODY SHAPES out of brown paper, BEAKS out of orange paper, and strips for LEGS out of orange paper (legs not shown in photo)

• We folded the legs into "accordions"  (unless you have an older group who could do it themselves)

The children then:

• Glued the LEGS, GOOGLY EYES, and BEAKS to the body

• Coloured half a folded COFFEE FILTER with markers in shades of orange, brown, and red 

• SPRAYED the coffee filter with water to cause the colours to "bleed" together

I hung the coffee filters on a string so that they would dry by the end of class.

We then stapled the coffee filters to the back of the turkey body.    

And here he is...Mr. Turkey Long Legs!

Super cute AND easy! 

Gobble, gobble!

Fall Counting Game for Preschool or Kindergarten Center Time

We start our preschool day with close to an hour 

of free play.

Keeping the table top activities "fresh" is always the goal!

Here is a new game I created for fall. 

  I created this game by cutting and gluing the parts for the trees onto a poster board.  

I find that generally looks more attractive (and more colourful) than drawing the images directly onto the paper.

The children add the "apples" (red glass stones from the dollar store) to the trees.  

The game was designed to be a counting game with children matching the number of apples they add to the number written on the trunk of the tree.

Some of the children (particularly the 3 year olds) however, simply enjoy playing with the beads and placing them on the trees.

Although they are not counting the "apples," they can still develop number awareness as they play.  

I will ask casual questions such as which tree has the MOST apples, which tree has "0" apples, or  

how many apples do you think you could eat? :)  

If you want, you can also add a "Mr. Slinky Worm" to the table.  

The children love it when he tries to sneak off with the apples!

We continue with the apple theme at circle time, by singing the classic Mr. Slinky Worm song.

If you'd like magnet board pieces for this song, you'll find them in my Worm Unit HERE along

with a variety of other apple related activities.

All the activities are great for fall, but sometimes Halloween crowds in and I just use the apple ones in the Fall and save the worm activities for spring! 

(That's when the kids particularly seem to enjoy digging in the soil for them!)

This set is on sale in my shop now for 20% off! 

Take a peek HERE and get your own Mr. Slinky Worm song, magnet board pieces, and class activity sheet while the set is on sale!

Corinne

Fall Craft Ideas and a Fall Clip Art Freebie!

You always know what season it is in a preschool classroom.

Between the bulletin board displays, the crafts, and the songs at circle,

there's no mistakin' that it's fall!

Here's a few shots of the projects we've been doing in our class this past week.

Excuse me if the pics aren't perfectly cropped or rotated!

Fall's a busy time! :)

Yarn Wrapped Acorns and Apples

Step 1 - Roll red and brown paint on cardstock (great project for the kids)

Step 2 - Teacher cuts out apple and acorn shapes 

Step 3 - Kids glue on letters, glittery shapes, etc.

Step 4 - Kids wrap the shape in yarn 

(Teachers help them tape the beginning and end of the yarn piece)

Fall Wreath on a Paper Plate

Step1 - Cut out the center of a thin paper plate 

(You don't need a Chinet plate for this project! :))

Step 2 - Students glue a variety of real leaves, paper leaves, and tissue leaves to the plate

Tip:  The real leaves don't stick very well to the plates, so after the kids glued them to the plate, we reinforced them with a staple or two!) 

Step 3 - Add a ribbon for hanging at the top (It's on the side in this photo)

Also, for fall....I've just added Surprise #4 to my shop!  

This FREEBIE can be used for a very special holiday coming up next month.  

But I won't say more, 'cause it's a secret!  

Shh......

Link to your surprise HERE!

Corinne

New FREE Fall Printable Surprise!

I've been back at school this past week prepping my classroom, but  

tomorrow is the first day our little ones arrive.

I better get a good night's sleep!

My Five for Fall Celebration continues this week with a new FREEBIE!

This one is a little different in that it's not actually clip art, but a pdf file of 

8 printables that I hope will be really useful for fall!  

 

If you like it, please leave some feedback.  

Thank you!

Also, Freebie #1 and #2 are still available in the FREE section of my shop if you haven't picked those up already.

 

Link to Surprise #3 in my Chirp Graphics shop, HERE!

Have a wonderful week!

Corinne

FREE Fall Clip Art Surprise!

My FIVE FOR FALL Celebration is in full swing for the month of September! 

Lots of you left lovely feedback on last week's clip art surprise.  
Thank you so much!

By the way, I thought I'd keep the sets a surprise to make it more fun.  

We just don't get enough good surprises in life, right?!

 I have just posted SURPRISE #2 in my shop and it's waiting for YOU!

If you like it, please remember to leave feedback.  

It only takes a minute, and it makes such a huge difference to me as I continue to build my store.  

Thank you so much!!

Link to Surprise #2 HERE!

Clip Art Freebies for You!

I am just under 1,000 followers in my clip art shop and I'm celebrating early!! 

Thanks so much to everyone who is a follower already, as well as any new friends who'd like to jump on board! 

I'll be giving away FIVE freebies in the coming weeks of September and I'll be offering sets that will be useful for a variety of grade levels. 

I just posted the first SURPRISE in my shop and it's waiting for YOU!

If you like it, please remember to leave feedback.  

It only takes a minute, and it makes such a huge difference to me as I continue to build my store.  

Thank you so much!!

Link to your 1st surprise HERE

Corinne

FREE Blank Gameboard for your Creations!

My class loves playing little, two person games

 at center time.  

I created this blank game board so that I could create a variety of games and tailor each to suit the particular theme/look and lesson I wanted.

The pages each have a transparent background so that you can layer a background paper underneath.   

Print on 8 1/2" x 11" paper using the landscape setting on your printer. 

They are also offered as pngs so they are resizable.  

Glue the two pages together after printing to create the full game board, then find or create a die with a small wood block that has numbers 1 - 3, plus a miss a turn option. 

If you can use these gameboards, I would love to offer them to you forFREE in my Chirp Graphics shop.  

Here's the link!  Once you get there, just click Follow Me under my Chirp Graphics shop name and you'll be notified of my next freebie!

Enjoy!

Corinne

FREE Summer Background Scene Clip Art

I just created this set of background scenes for summer!  

Great for cover pages, as a backdrop for games and activities and more!  

Just layer your images on top and voila!  

You have a game or cover.  Done!  

If you could use this FREE set of beach and ocean papers for summer, head over to my Chirp Graphics shop to pick them up!  

If you like the set, please remember to leave feedback on it for my shop. 

It takes time and energy to make freebies, but it's all worthwhile when I read your comments.  :)

Thanks so much and enjoy the set!

Click HERE to access it 

Corinne,

Chirp Graphics