Halloween is celebrated around the world, becoming the second biggest commercial celebration after Christmas. Initially believed to have started in Ireland as a pagan celebration, Halloween is now mainly associated with Halloween costume parties, trick-or-treating, carving Jack-o-Lanterns and lighting bonfires.
But to children it is much more than that. It is a time to reinvent themselves, play games with friends and experience a more hidden world. A time to enjoy the absurd and the scary, to feel part of a community that shares a night of fun and to welcome the generosity of those opening their doors and homes to you
Because we know how much children love this celebration, we thought of some fun Halloween classroom games for young children to play with friends. The games below are versatile, require little preparation and are ideal for small and larger groups.
6 Fun Halloween Classroom Games For Young Children
Eyeball race
Materials needed: two spoons; two ping pong balls painted as an eyeball
Divide the children into teams. Line them up.
Give the first child on each team a spoon and a ping pong ball painted as an eyeball. The idea is that they have to carry the ping pong ball with the help of the spoon walking as fast as possible.
Establish the point up to where they have to walk.
Come back to where you’ve first started and pass the spoon to the child that is waiting next in line.
Continue until all children have played.
The first team to finish walking to and fro without dropping the eyeball wins!
2. Trap the spiders
Materials: 2 plastic tubs that you can cut (a large one from butter or yogurt), yarn and plastic spiders
Cut notches in the top of the plastic tubs all the way around the circumference about 1″ apart.
Then take your yarn and make a spider web by going across the tub to the notches, wrapping around the outside of the tub until you get to the next notch to go across. Tie or tape off the end. Repeat the procedure for the second container.
You want to make sure that there are holes large enough for the spiders to get through, but not super easy – you want some to get caught.
Divide the spiders among the two teams. Ask the two teams to line up.
The first member from each team will come close to the tub and start throwing spiders in it.
Then the next two waiting in line hurry up and take their turn and so on.
The idea is that they have to make the spiders get stuck on the spider web. The more spiders get stuck, the better.
Repeat until all spiders from both teams are gone.
Then count how many spiders got stuck for each team.
3. Candy web
Materials needed: paper or string to create a spider web, glue, candies, two baskets
Create a spider web. You can simply draw it on the floor / glue slips of paper together or use string making it look like a spider web. Make sure it’s big enough for children to walk through it and glue it to the floor.
Put some candies inside the web as if they got stuck into it.
Divide the players into two teams. Ask the first two members from each team to get close to the spider web.
Tell them to start jumping through the web without touching it so that they can collect one of the candies.
Each child should take only one candy and bring it back to you.
Prepare a basket for each team in which you will collect the candies so that at the end of the game you can count the candies for each team
The faster the players, the better.
4. Pop up
Materials needed: balloons, two sets of pictures with Halloween-related vocabulary
Use lots of balloons. Blow them up and hang them around the room.
Next to each balloon put a flashcard that is representative for Halloween (ghost, vampire; make sure you use only words that children know).
Use two sets of flashcards, one set for each team.
Divide the players into two teams.
When you shout out “Ghost” the first two members from each team run to pop the balloons next to the respective cards.
They can use their hands or a pencil to pop it up. If children are scared of popping balloons, tell them to run and take the respective card being very careful NOT to pop the balloon.
The first to retrieve the card wins a candy/point/token/sticker.
5. Pumpkin quest
Materials needed: pumpkins and tools to carve
Hide as many pumpkins as possible.
Divide the players into two teams.
Two children from different teams need to go search for a pumpkin/pumpkins and bring them back to you.
Once you found all of them, start carving the pumpkins together. Display them somewhere and vote for the scariest/funniest/friendliest etc. ones there.
6. Pass the pumpkin
Materials needed: pumpkins, candy to put in the pumpkins, Halloween vocabulary flashcards
Children stand in a straight line across the room
Display some pumpkins in one of the corners of the room.
These pumpkins could also have some Halloweeb-related items inside (spiders, small monsters/witches etc.).
The children have to pass as many pumpkins as they can from one corner of the room to the next.
You could also try to play Halloween music. When the music stops, the one holding the pumpkin should take out an item and name it/touch it and guess what it is.
7. Halloween Dancing Circle
Materials needed: hula hoop circle or anything large and round
Ask the children to stand in a circle.
Put a circle on the floor (a hula hoop circle or anything similar). This is the dancing circle.
Play some Halloween music. While listening to the song the children walk around stepping in and out of the dancing circle.
When you stop the music, the children inside the circle receive a dare (fun scary dare).
8. Witch hat toss
Materials needed: three witch hats, a small circle
Display some witch hats on the floor as if they were placed on a bowling alley.
Ask the children to line up.
Use a small circle (or anything oval) and throw it at the hats trying to catch one.
Count the points and let the children decide when they think it is time to end the game.
Final thoughts
With these Halloween classroom games for young children, you are sure to offer your students an amazing day. The Halloween games above require simple materials, give busy teachers enough time to prepare as most of the games are little prep or no prep, and offer children the opportunity to play together and feel part of a team.
