Fun and Creative Ideas for Your Classroom Halloween Party!

Hello friends!  Happy October from Cara Taylor at Creative Playground!  I have to be honest... Halloween is my favorite time of year because of my birthday.  But this year, I'm turning a "milestone" age, and it's getting me down.  So I'm trying REAL hard to get out of this funk and what better way than to have a party!  A classroom Halloween party that is!

     Year after year, I've come to do the same ol' thing when it comes to parties... Have snacks and watch a movie.  Very easy and manageable, especially when you have no parent help.  But with the birthday this year, I decided to celebrate a little different this time and have a party around a theme.  And what better theme than candy corn?

     After doing some research, I discovered that October 30th is National Candy Corn Day!  So it makes sense to use this as our "featured" candy for our theme.  It also lends well for classrooms that don't really celebrate Halloween or have students that don't participate in this holiday's festivities. 

     I decided that centers would be awesome and easier to run with so many different activities.  If your students are used to centers, it will be easier for them.  But if they're not familiar with the center "do's and don'ts" I might not try this set-up.  It's supposed to be a fun time; not a time you're pulling out all your hair!

  

  Prepare by getting your candy corn... There are a variety of different types, colors and flavors.  So think ahead about your use of them and that should help with what kind to get.  For example, if you'd like to do a sort, choose the Fall Holiday Mix of candy corn that has various types of shapes in it.  If you'd like to do a taste test, choose different flavors of candy corn.

 

   I'm an artsy-fartsy type of girl, so craftivities are right up my alley!  I wanted to use the Halloween monster theme and candy corn, so I came up with this cute craft monster!

     Is this the cutest monster or what?  I'd suggest having all the templates made for your kiddos; I like doing it on white paper so the kids can color it the colors they like.  The last step would be to glue on the candy corn teeth.  This can be done in a pattern or randomly.  You can even make it into an addition and subtraction center, with adding more and taking away teeth.  How fun!  Students could write their own story problems as well.

     I have many center activities planned, like this game above.   Each student in the group has a game board and they spin using the spinner to find the sum of the numbers.  If they have that number on their board, they cover it with a candy corn.  The first player to cover their board is the "winner".  What a fun way to practice addition and incorporate candy corn!

     Another center game is this candy corn shape find.  Again, students have a board similar to this one.  A shape card is pulled and if the student has that shape on their board, they cover it with a candy corn.  Perfect way to practice shapes!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Halloween-and-Fall-2116543

     To throw in a little writing, classroom books are a great idea!  This is the cover for a book about when we all become pieces of candy corn.  The students have a sheet to write and draw about their adventures.  It can then be put together into a book for the classroom library.

     Grab and Guess is a fun way to pull in estimation, which is an easy skill to focus on with a bunch of candy corn.  I put a little twist in this activity, with having the students estimating how many are LEFT in the bag, forcing them to think about missing addends!  Sneaky, we teachers are!  The recording sheet is seen below.  If you'd like a copy of this center and printables, click here.

    Another way to pull in estimation is to have an ongoing Estimation Station activity in which the students make estimates as to how many candy corn are in each jar.  I like to have more than one jar, so they can practice various skills.  Try to have different sizes of jars and have two jars with the same amount.  Great way to talk about volume and using mental strategies for counting and estimating!  For a copy of this printable, click here.

     I have all these centers in a Candy Corn unit that can be found in my store.  There are many different games and activities, along with recording sheets.  

     There's also craftivities included in the unit, along with all the templates you need to make the candy corn monster above!  I've also written a candy corn big book, that explains all you need to know about candy corn and more!

      

     I have this unit on sale right now, so it's a great time to grab it!  Make sure to get the free printables by clicking here!

I'd love to hear how you celebrate Halloween in your classroom AND how you overcome those "milestone" birthdays!

Until Later my Friends,