Guest Author - Susan Thompson

Halloween is fast approaching. Here are some quick, fun ideas to add to your child’s Halloween party.

Let them make goo. This is a quick and easy recipe that is safe for kids to make and leaves them with hours of fun.
Halloween Goo
Ingredients:
1 box corn starch
1 c. water
Food coloring (green or orange)
Mix all ingredients in large bowl. While in the bowl the mixture is fairly solid; when scooped up in the hand it becomes slime.

This recipe is tried and true. I used it years ago with my son’s Cub Scout Troop and the boys loved watching the “hands” melt and the fingers fall off.
Halloween Punch
Ingredients:
2 cans fruit juice
2 rubber gloves (the ones doctors use)
1 bottle lemon/lime soda
1 can green juice or water
1 container sherbet
Fill gloves with juice or water and freeze overnight. In a large punch bowl or witches caldron mix all liquid ingredients; add 4 or 5 scoops of sherbet (more if desired). Just before guests arrive, cut the gloves off the frozen “hands” and add to punch. Enjoy.

Halloween Safety Bingo
Need a game for your child’s class party? In our school, parties have to have educational value, so I created Halloween Safety Bingo for my son’s second grade class. The teacher was so impressed with the game she made copies of it for future classes. Here’s what you do:

1 – Either on your computer or by hand, make a bingo board with 5 rows and 5 columns. Mark the center space “Trick or Treat” as a free space. Then print or copy enough boards for the amount of players.
2 – Make a list of questions pertaining to Halloween safety such as. You should always carry a _______________ when you go Trick or Treating. The answer is flashlight. You need as many questions as you can think of that pertain to Halloween Safety.
3 – Make an answer key with all of the correct answers and mix in some incorrect words having to do with Halloween such as ghost, witches, goblins, etc. You will need at least 24 words to fill the bingo board; I used 30 words so that not everyone had every word on their board. Make as many copies as you will need for each kid, plus one more to cut up and call the bingo game.
4 – Cut the words out, fold them, and put them in an empty plastic pumpkin.
To play the game, give each child a bingo board, a question sheet, and an answer sheet. Have the children answer the safety questions then fill in the bingo board with the words from the answer sheet. They can put the words where ever they want on the board, and use any words they want as long as they are on the answer sheet.
5 – Have the teacher or a mom be the caller. We played several games regular bingo, four corners, make and X, and full board. For prizes, we used candy bars, and of course at the end everyone got a candy bar so we didn’t leave anyone out.
6 – To make this game really fun, use candy corn, M&M’s, or some other small candy as the bingo markers.

I hope you all have a fun and safe Halloween!