How to Have a Calm, Organized Halloween Party

I'm going to share a little trick of the trade for the Halloween party, my least favorite party of them all! It's just too much excitement for most ten year olds to handle well!  

For the last few years I have found one thing that does seem to help keep things a little calmer.  Our classroom parties are one hour long.  Rather than do things as an entire class, which is what I used to do, now I divide my class into three groups.  I plan three different activities that will each take about 20 minutes and rotate the three groups through the three activities.  The key is to keep the kids busy and moving in an organized fashion.  I choose one parent helper to run each of the three stations which frees me up to move between them all putting out fires.  

One of the stations is always the Halloween goodies.  

The kids fill up their plates and head back to their seats.  By the time they all get through the line, they end up with about 10-15 minutes to munch. This is a perfect amount of time for kids who are used to scarfing down their lunches quickly to head outside for recess.  Remember the enemy is down time!  Down time equals kids getting antsy and out of control!

My second station is Halloween Bingo.  This is ideal because you can just grab a bag of candy and keep playing until time is up.  Also, the kids have to be quiet to hear what you are calling...perfect!  I always have this group back on the carpet to play.  

My third station varies, depending on the kind of group I have.  The last couple years my students have done Halloween "Boodoku" Puzzles which are similar to Sudoku but have Halloween pictures instead of numbers.  

Another great activity for the third station is Trick or Treat Target Addition.  This is a freebie in my store, and it's a fun game for 2-4 players that can be played over and over, a great time filler during the party or Halloween madness week!  

Need more ideas for Halloween party stations or just fun things to do during Halloween week?  This Hundred Board Activities Set has a couple things in it that are perfect for this time of year!  The first one is a Hidden Hundred Board Picture.  The students solve order of operations problems and then color their answers specific colors to create this picture...

Also in this set is a Halloween version of Roll & Race to 100 that I called Tootsie Roll!  The students use dice, counters, and their mental math skills for adding to see who can get to 100 first to win a Tootsie Roll!

No matter what games or activities you choose to use, I think you will find that having stations makes the hour go by faster for everyone!

Check out these cute ideas for staff Halloween costumes and a monsters themed Halloween!