Busy Zoo Activity Center

Busy Zoo Activity Center

The Parents Magazine Busy Zoo activity center is a fun-filled learning experience. The activities are simple enough for one-year-olds to understand and large enough for them to manipulate with ease. On top, they can move animals along tracks or twirl wooden shapes along looping wire. Choices around the four sides include rotating picture blocks until they form a picture of a variety of animals; turning any one of interconnecting gears to make them all spin; opening and closing a door and window. For the future, reversible alphabet blocks show a picture and its initial letter on one side, and the upper and lower case letter on the reverse. The various finger and hand manipulations will develop the muscles later used in learning to write.

Pumpkin Bowling Party Game

Pumpkin Bowling Party Game

Ask friends and parents of the guests to save empty, clean 2 liter soda bottles for your party. Give them a date of at least 1 week before your party to turn in the bottles.

Spray paint the soda bottles white and draw eyes and mouths to look like ghosts on the bottles once dried. Add about a cup of sand or pebbles in each bottle so they will stand without falling over.

Divide students and guests into several teams of 3-8 kids each... line up and take turn at bowling over the Ghosts!

Halloween Who Am I? Party Game

Halloween Who Am I? Party Game

When a guest arrives a name tag or piece of paper is placed on their back and they are told that by the end of the party they must guess what it says. Note: This game can be adapted for any age group 3 to 93, just increase difficulty with age.

This is done by asking other guests 'yes' or 'no' questions about what the paper says. They are not allowed to read it themselves, nor are they allowed to ask someone else what it says.

When they guess correctly, they win a prize like a candy bar or a keychain (make it age appropriate).

Ideas for on the back:Young kids – Pumpkin, Witch, Vampire, Ghost, etc…For Teenagers and Adults: Think of Scary movie titles, Famous Horror Characters from scary movies, Halloween phrases like Pumpkin Carving, Trick or Treat, Headless Horseman, adjust as you need

Trick or Treat Party Game

Trick or Treat Party Game

Use a cookie cutter shaped like a pumpkin and trace 12 pumpkins (or the number of guests who will be at the party) on orange construction paper, cut them out. Note: It is important to try and make these the same size. Then take 11 of the pumpkins and write Trick on the back and on 1 write Treat. Adjust the ratio of Tricks to Treats if needed.

On the Trick pumpkins write a silly thing to do like walk like a spider, or cackle like a witch, or flap your wings like a bat, dance like a fairy, walk like Frankenstein and more.

Now put all the pumpkins in a plastic witch kettle and have each child draw one out. If they get the treat one then let them choose a treat out of another bucket or award them a prize. If they get the trick they have to do what it says to earn the treat. Or for additional fun you can continue to make them do additional silly things until they pick out a treat.

Halloween Pictionary Party Game

Halloween Pictionary Party Game

Object of the Game: Collect points by drawing pictures and guessing what scary words the pictures stand for.

What You Need: Plastic pumpkin (or other container), chalk board or drawing board, slips of paper.

What You Do: If you are familiar with the game of Pictionary, then you'll know what to do. If not, a short explanation: Pictionary is a game played by two teams of people. One team sends a person up to aboard to draw a word in picture then the team must guess what it is. This is a Halloween version of that game.

Before the party, make slips of paper with Halloween words such as Mummy, Tombstone, Bats, Vampires, Jack-O-Lantern, Spider, Witch, Black Cat, Candy Corn, etc. Place them in a bowl of some kind, (a plastic child's pumpkin for trick or treating works great). Divide the partygoers into two teams. One player from the first team starts by picking a slip of paper from the bowl. Use a chalkboard, erasable marker board, or large pad of drawing paper and pen to draw items related to the word, players can not write the word. Their team tries to guess the word. Set a 2-minute time limit. The other team goes next. Keep rotating until everyone has a chance to draw. You can keep score and have one team win, or just play for the fun of it.

Trash Bag Tarantula Activity

Trash Bag Tarantula

MATERIALS:
18 large black trash bags
Leaves or newspaper
Black electrical tape
Large red plastic party cups
Clothesline, optional

1. To create the spider's body, stuff one trash bag full of dry leaves (you can also use crumpled newspaper). Tie the bag closed, then flip it upside down. To make the head, stuff a second bag (not as full as the first), tie it closed, and tape it to the body.

2. To make one of the legs, roll up two garbage bags together lengthwise. Wrap them with electrical tape at both ends and at two points along the leg to make joints. Roll up seven more legs, then cut four small slits in each side of the spider's body and slip the legs in place.

3. Cut the white lip off two of the red plastic cups, then tape them onto the spider's body to make his beady red eyes. For the fangs, cut two triangles out of the third plastic cup (or another piece of white plastic) and tape them onto the spider so that the white side faces up.

4. Perch the spider atop a big pile of relatively dry leaves. To create a web for her, simply weave and tie lengths of clothesline or twine across your porch.

Tips for Taking Great Halloween Pictures of Kids

Tips for Taking Great Halloween Pictures of Kids

Good candid pictures of children require active participation and putting them at ease.

1. Stop Posing - Halloween is not a formal affair. So don't bother with the wedding style shots. Engage the kids in the play associated with their costumes -- and then shoot the pictures. Candids reveal the smiles much more than a "Hold still, honey!" moment.

2. Shoot Early, Shoot Often - Film is the cheapest part of photography. And in this digital age, there just isn't a reason not to shoot several images. There are many good reasons for being trigger happy with the camera. First, if kids are used to you constantly firing away they won't bother with the plastic smiles. But most importantly, shooting more simply increases your chances for great pictures. With Halloween pictures some of the best images are taken while the costuming is in process -- don't wait for the finished product.

3. Get in Their Face - Halloween was made for pretend. Kids love to make faces, don costumes and assume a new personality. It is the ultimate form of exhibition. You just can't let the opportunity pass. They want to be noticed. Most point-and-shoot variety cameras have wide-angle lenses. While this helps them to get sharp results and to work well in lower light, they tend to move the subject matter further away. Most have a minimum shooting distance of around three feet. Don't be afraid to push that limit at Halloween. Get in close, have them make faces, ask them to talk to the camera. They will. It is, after all, Halloween.

4. Let Them Call the Shots - It's their party. Ask them what kind of pictures they want. Chances are your kids have an idea of the persona they are adopting. Let them call the shots to document the experience.

5. Use the set - Most of us decorate for the season. There could be haystacks, a bubbling pot, a roaring fireplace. Use these props, even if they don't fit the theme of the costume. Down the road the memories you cherish will include all the fun that went into creating the holiday environment in your home.

Halloween Party Decorations Ideas

Halloween Party Decorations Ideas

You want to set a horrible scene but you don't know where to start. Choose a few of these suggestions (or even all of them) to make your home a Halloween fright.

ILLUMINATIONS:

To create an image of a bat on the wall of a dark room, cut out an inch-long bat from a square of black paper, center it over a flashlight and tape to secure it in place. Hold together two identical magnifying lenses in front of the light and experiment until you get the right focus on the wall. Cut a piece of a cardboard tube to fit the correct distance between the flashlight and the lenses, tape the apparatus together and set on a table.

SPECIAL EFFECTS LIGHTING:

To illuminate a prop, such as a skeleton or a pumpkin, with colored light, place a clip-on or swing-arm lamp so that it shines on the object at an effective angle. Tape a cellophane gel about 2 inches from the bulb. (Gels, pieces of colorful, heat-resistant plastic, are available at many photographic, film or theater supply stores for about $6.) For even simpler lighting, use colored lightbulbs, available at hardware and electric supply stores for $3 to $5.

HORRIBLE HANDS:

Stuff a pair of rubber gloves with tissue paper or soft cotton batting. Decorate them with whatever strikes your fancy: spray paint, gauze wrap, fake fingernails. rings, a watch, rubber insects, or red "blood" paint.

FOG AND SMOKE:

Electric fog or smoke machines, which spew a safe artificial mist, are available for rent at theater supply stores or local theater production groups. The cost probably will be between $50 and $70 for the machines (rentals are usually by the week) and includes the dry ice or fluid used to create the fog.

SINISTER SIGNS:

Creepy signs hung on doors around your house add to the haunted decor and make exploring the house even more fun for party goers.

WHAT'S THAT NOISE?:

No haunted house is complete without sound effects. You can consult your local librarian to find a recording of creepy organ music or Halloween sounds, or you can tape homemade sound effects (clanking chains, screams, howls, scary laughter, nails scraping a blackboard and heavy footsteps). Hide your tape player in a closet, leaving the door slightly ajar.

THE HEAD TRICK:

To set up this classic gag, first cut a round hole (slightly larger than head size) out of a large piece of cardboard. Place two tables of similar size side by side, about 12 inches apart, and lay the cardboard across the gap. Cover the tables and cardboard with a paper tablecloth. Cut a hole in the cloth to match the hole in the cardboard, and have a parent or friend hide underneath the table so that her head pokes out of the hole. To make a mock serving tray, cut a platter-size doughnut shape out of cardboard, making the hole just the size of her neck. Cut the doughnut in half, cover each half with aluminum foil, and rejoin around the jokester's neck. Decorate the tray with vegetable garnishes and set the meal around the platter. Place a silver warming cover over the head and--voilà!--dinner is served.

Boo Bingo Party Game

Boo Bingo Party Game

Materials:

Plain paper
Candy corn
Pencil or pen
Bowl

How to Play:

Prepare Bingo cards ahead of time. Draw a large grid with nine squares. In each square draw a simple Halloween picture: a cat, a bat, a witch's hat, a ghost, a broom, a jack-o-lantern, a spider, a full moon, and a candy corn. Make a bingo card for each player, but vary the order in which you draw the pictures, so that each card is different. Draw an extra set of pictures and cut them apart. Put them in a bowl.

Give everyone a card and some candy corn for markers. Take turns drawing slips from the bowl and calling out the picture. Cover that picture on your card with a candy corn. The first person to get 3 pictures covered (across, up and down or diagonally) yells "Boo!" and is the winner.

Mummy Wrap Party Game

Mummy Wrap Party Game

Buy some cheap rolls of toilet paper and perhaps some crepe paper streamers in Halloween colors. Split the kids up into teams of two. One child will be the “mummy” and the other is in charge of wrapping up the child like a mummy.

When you start playing the music the teams can start wrapping up the mummy. Try to play some fun Halloween songs like “Monster Mash”. When you turn the music off the kids need to stop. The team whose mummy is more mummified (or wrapped) wins.
Older kids can have even more fun if you turn the lights right down when you turn the music on - it makes it much harder and they will get the giggles!

Variations:

Don't play this as a competitive game - just let the kids go to town!
See who can use the paper to wrap up one of their team mates the fastest. The first one to complete their mummy using the entire roll wins.

Pick Their Brains Halloween Party Game

Pick Their Brains Party Game

Cook a large pot of different shaped pasta such as spirals or macaroni. Drain and cool completely. Place cooled pasta in a large plastic bowl and add a few olives. Then add some wrapped candies or treats like mini fun sized chocolate bars.

Cover the bowl with material that you’ve cut into a decorative shape like a pumpkin or monsters head, or use a scary cloth or rubber mask that you don't mind cutting. Once the bowl is covered, cut a slit which is just large enough for the children to put their hands through, no larger: they should not be able to see the contents of the bowl.

Sit the kids in a circle and let them take turns digging into the bowl to find the candies. They won’t be able to see into the bowl and the icky texture of the pasta along with the olives will feel like brains!

Halloween Activities for a Scary Good Time

Halloween Activities for a Scary Good Time

Once you have your Halloween party foods and decorations all planned and ready, you will also need to plan some creepy, scary Halloween activities. The activities are what the party guests will best remember, so you will want to plan some really cool things to do. There are many really fun, yet scary activities that adults can do at a Halloween party. Here are a few Halloween activities that your guest will rave about.

Halloween Activity #1: The Costume Contest

All adults love to dress up for Halloween, so why not host a costume party? Choose a few friends to be the judges. Next, create a poster with all of the categories the costumes will be judged. For example, you can have the scariest, the most unusual, the most original, the cutest and the ugliest costumes. Make sure you have some prizes ready for all of the winners.

Halloween Activity #2: The Paranormal Party

Many adults do not believe in ghosts. However, you can prove them wrong by hosting your own séance. Have everyone sit around a table holding hands and closing their eyes. You or someone else can say a few chants or poems. In the background, have another hidden person making sound effects to make it seem real. You may even want to contact a professional séance person to come and do this activity for your group.

Halloween Activity #3: The Haunted House

Most of your adult Halloween guests will admit that they have not been to a haunted house in many years. Therefore, you can set up your garage into a haunted house that they can walk through and get the scare of their lives. You can even set up a Halloween walk through in the woods near your home or through your backyard. Having some form of haunted house or a haunted walk through will leave your Halloween guests talking about your party for a long time.

Halloween Activity #4: A Halloween Scavenger Hunt

Set up a Halloween scavenger hunt for your guests. Divide all of the guests up into teams and give them a list of creepy, gross or scary things that they have to find around your home, or even around town. Give them a specific time limit to meet back at the starting point. The team who finds the most things on their list will win some really cool prizes.

Theses are just a few adult Halloween activities that are sure to be a hit at your next Halloween party. When planning the activities, don't forget to get prizes or participation prizes for all of your guests. Get prizes that are appealing to adults such as gift certificates, CDs or DVDs. The cooler your prizes are, the more participants you will have in your Halloween party activities.

Giant Spider Web Party Game

Giant Spider Web Party Game

Supplies:

Yarn, plastic spider rings, prizes - candy

Directions:

First remove anything that could get damaged from the room.

Then get started by draping a really long piece of yarn across a room (wrapped gently around couches, chairs, furniture, etc.) this will be used to form the base of the to spider web.

Then determine how many guests will be attending the party as you will need 1 extremely long piece of yarn (several yards) for each guest. At one end you will tie the spiders ring and the other a prize or note revealing their prize. Hide the "prize" end somewhere in the room and start wrapping the yarn around the existing web base. Repeat with all the other pieces of yarn so that when you are done, you should have all the spider ring ends at one end of the room, all the yarn in a tangled web in the middle of the room and the "prize" end of each piece hidden in the room.

Now when you are ready to play this game invite all the guests into the room and ask them to pick a spider. Now all the guests have to do is start with the spider and somehow untangle their piece of yarn from the rest of the web to get to the other end (stepping over, under, and basically getting tangled in the spider web)....and ultimately, the PRIZE!

This is a way to keep the kids busy and occupied for quite some time. Remember the more difficult the web the longer it will take them to untangle it.

Ghost Busting Pinata Halloween Game

Ghost Busting Pinata Halloween Game

This ghoulish game gives party goers a chance to take a swing at a flitting ghost, and hopefully knock the candy out of it! Blindfolded players take turns swatting at a hanging ghost pinata with a witch's broomstick until one of the players breaks the ghost open and the candy spills out.


Materials :

Mini Chocolate Bars
Hard Candy
Brown paper grocery bag
Wire clothes hanger
Packing tape
White streamer paper
Glue
Broom
Blindfold

Setting up the game:

Fill a brown paper grocery bag with Mini Chocolate Bars and Hard Candy. Close the top of the bag by folding several inches of it over the wire hanger and securely taping the flap closed with packing tape.

Decorate the bag to look like a ghost by gluing lengths of white streamers onto the bag at various points until the bag is completely covered and streamers are hanging six inches below the bottom of the bag. Draw or paint ghost features on the bag.

Hang your ghost pinata in an area clear of furniture or other objects.

Spooky Scarecrow Activity

Spooky Scarecrow Activity

Materials :

4" Styrofoam egg-shaped ball.
2 Wood 1/4" dowels - 12" length
Off white or burlap fabric cut in a 18" square
Orange construction paper or foam
Black marker
2 wiggle eyes
Straw hat to fit head
Flannel shirt - child's small
Raffia
Low temperature hot glue gun
Scissors
Clay pot
Halloween embellishments
Craft or florist wire
Various Halloween chocolates and candies

Directions:

Take the two dowel pieces and form a cross. Move one dowel up so it is 5 inches from the top of the other dowel. Wire them together where they cross.

Push the short end of the dowel into the bottom of the foam ball. Cover it with off-white fabric. Using a wire or a rubber band, secure the fabric to the dowel, at the base of the foam ball.

Fit the straw hat on the top temporarily, to find correct placement of the eyes. Glue wiggle eyes to the fabric. Between them, glue an orange triangle for the nose cut from construction paper or foam.

Using the black marker, draw the mouth.

To make the hair, remove the hat and cut raffia into 8-inch pieces. Unwrap each piece at the ends, and cut the ends of the flattened raffia to look like straw. Glue the raffia on to the top of the cloth covered foam egg. Lastly, glue the hat on top of raffia hair.

Tie some additional pieces of the raffia under the head.

For the arms, cut four pieces of raffia, each 8 inches in length. Unwrap only one end and cut strips as you did for the hair. Do this for all four pieces. Glue two pieces together and then glue to end of one of the arms. Wrap the raffia around the arm with wire to make it secure. Repeat for the other side.

Place the child's shirt over the horizontal dowel. Allowing some of the tied raffia to poke out of the top. You can also use the same technique that you used for the hands to create straw pieces to stick out from the shirt. Tie a piece of wire around the waist of the shirt to secure it to the length you want.

Place the base of the scarecrow (including the shirt) into the clay pot. Cover with candy to hold the scarecrow upright.

Glue Halloween themed embellishments to the front of the pot.

Completed craft is for decorative purposes only. Candy used in craft should not be eaten.

Egg Carton Spider Halloween Activity

Egg Carton Spider Halloween Activity

Materials:

Cardboard egg carton
Black pipe cleaners
Black tempera paint, marker or crayon
Red construction paper
GlueThread or yarn

Instructions:

Using paint, marker or crayons, color the cup sections of the egg carton.
Cut each egg cup apart.
Push pipe cleaner legs into egg cup and bend to shape legs.
Cut red paper and glue on for eyes.
Use thread or yarn to hang.

Monster Jug Heads Activity

Monster Jug Heads

MATERIALS:

Gallon-sized milk jug
2 milk caps
Plastic deli container
Duct tape
Acrylic paints
Tinfoil
Pushpins
Cardboard
Craft knife

1. Turn over a clean, gallon-sized milk jug and rest it in a plastic deli container (for ease in standing upright, and for making Frankie's thick neck). Attach the jug to the container with duct tape, then coat jug, tape and deli container with tempera paint.

2. When the head's dry, paint bloodshot eyes, cool scars, and a head of greasy black hair.

3. To create bolts in the sides of the monster's neck, cover milk caps with tinfoil and attach them with pushpins.

4. Make a nose out of a thin piece of cardboard and slip it through a slit cut in the monster's face.

Frankenstein Yard Monster Activity

Frankenstein Yard Monster Activity

Young scientists will go absolutely mad over this huge Frankenstein monster ingeniously crafted from a picnic table. Just stand him up in your yard or driveway and hope for lightning to bring him to life.

For directions on how to make this Frankenstein Yard Monster click here.

Wicked, Wicked Witch Decoration Activity

Wicked, Wicked Witch Decoration

1.Cut the top off of a cardboard milk carton and discard.
2.Cover the carton with black construction paper and tape at the back.
3.Cut a strip of white paper 3 inches wide and tape around the top over the black paper.
4.Draw a scary witch's face on the white paper. Glue on some yarn for the hair.
5.Make a cone-shaped witch's hat with black paper and glue to the top.
6.Cut out arms and hands from white paper. Cut out feet from black paper. Tape them to the witch.
7.Glue a popsicle stick to one of the witch's hands.
8.Cut out two small pieces of yellow paper and cut a fringe on the bottom. Glue one on each side of the end of the popsicle stick for the broom.
9.You can give these to your friends if you are having a Halloween party!

Paper Bag Pumpkins Halloween Activity

Paper Bag Pumpkins

Materials:
Paper bag (lunch or grocery)
String or green yarn
Markers, crayons or paints
Newspaper

Instructions:
For smaller pumpkins use lunch bags with flat bottoms. For larger pumpkins use grocery bags. Stuff the bag 3/4 full with scrunched up newspaper. Gather top of bag and tie with string or yarn to form the stem of the pumpkin. Shape bag to look like a pumpkin using your hands. Decorate your pumpkin with paints, markers or crayons as you desire.