Halloween
I've just hosted (and survived!) a 2 hours 20 kids Halloween Party!
We had a blast!!!
My ideas were simple:
DRESS CODE
All kids had to wear a costume (and since there is always someone who doesn't have it or forgot, I brought 2 play dresses, and there we go, 2 girls didn't have a costume and loved the dresses, phew!)
I drilled some Halloween words doing flashcards and asking Witches, Cats, Ghosts, Princesses, Pumpkins to please stand up.
HAUNTED HOUSE
(Note to self: next time I will prepare a less scary task for younger or sensitive children because one girl cried 😞 )
My daughter and I made this Haunted House with the Eye Ball we'd bought in the states.
It got them spooked and thrilled!
We decorated the walls with Halloween creatures. I made a handout with these exact creatures plus extra. The task was to stick your face in the box, the Spooky Eye Ball laughs and you gotta see and remember what creatures are there. Then you have to tick or cross them on the paper.
This was super tricky and fun because the Eye Ball confused everyone and even adults didn't see anything else even though there were plenty of creatures! Man, we had so much fun! The kids and moms lined up and did it twice and people were STILL seeing something that wasn't there or not seeing who was there! LOL! We had to do a plenary check with me 🙂
SPOOKY SNACKS
I bought different snacks and made it clear that they have to ask for the snack in English or you don't get any 🙂 They lined up and had to say "a monster stick, please!", "a worm, please" etc. A completely useless set of vocab but for a lot of them this is a rare chance to have a party like that and some English is better than nothing.
Gotta tell you, the motivation was through the roof, they went out of their way to speak English!
I didn't expect so many kids to show up so I was happy moms quickly jumped in and helped with this spooky snack distribution!
A lot of kids said Maggots were the yummiest. It was crushed Oreos for soil and peanuts for maggots.
FACE PAINT
Again, they had to choose the design they wanted and tell me in English, specifying whether they wanted it on their face or hand. Because it was Iteration #4 by now, it just rolled off their tongues so smoothly!
It was funny that among girls the most popular design was Black Cat, and boys chose Fire.
CHAT
I love park parties because once kids set off to run around, moms get a break and can chat. Since I usually know and remember a lot of details about a lot of people and I'm naturally a chit chatter, often it's me who introduces people to each other even though I'm not Japanese and they've been in this yochien for 2 years and I haven't. Very often people actually start friendships and their own circles after my parties. Kids are my main goal, I make sure I chat with every kid and ask them questions and play with them, but I've made so many good connections with moms!
SPOOKY HALLOWEEN!
We had a blast!!!
My ideas were simple:
DRESS CODE
All kids had to wear a costume (and since there is always someone who doesn't have it or forgot, I brought 2 play dresses, and there we go, 2 girls didn't have a costume and loved the dresses, phew!)
I drilled some Halloween words doing flashcards and asking Witches, Cats, Ghosts, Princesses, Pumpkins to please stand up.
HAUNTED HOUSE
(Note to self: next time I will prepare a less scary task for younger or sensitive children because one girl cried 😞 )
My daughter and I made this Haunted House with the Eye Ball we'd bought in the states.
It got them spooked and thrilled!
We decorated the walls with Halloween creatures. I made a handout with these exact creatures plus extra. The task was to stick your face in the box, the Spooky Eye Ball laughs and you gotta see and remember what creatures are there. Then you have to tick or cross them on the paper.
This was super tricky and fun because the Eye Ball confused everyone and even adults didn't see anything else even though there were plenty of creatures! Man, we had so much fun! The kids and moms lined up and did it twice and people were STILL seeing something that wasn't there or not seeing who was there! LOL! We had to do a plenary check with me 🙂
SPOOKY SNACKS
I bought different snacks and made it clear that they have to ask for the snack in English or you don't get any 🙂 They lined up and had to say "a monster stick, please!", "a worm, please" etc. A completely useless set of vocab but for a lot of them this is a rare chance to have a party like that and some English is better than nothing.
Gotta tell you, the motivation was through the roof, they went out of their way to speak English!
I didn't expect so many kids to show up so I was happy moms quickly jumped in and helped with this spooky snack distribution!
A lot of kids said Maggots were the yummiest. It was crushed Oreos for soil and peanuts for maggots.
FACE PAINT
Again, they had to choose the design they wanted and tell me in English, specifying whether they wanted it on their face or hand. Because it was Iteration #4 by now, it just rolled off their tongues so smoothly!
It was funny that among girls the most popular design was Black Cat, and boys chose Fire.
CHAT
I love park parties because once kids set off to run around, moms get a break and can chat. Since I usually know and remember a lot of details about a lot of people and I'm naturally a chit chatter, often it's me who introduces people to each other even though I'm not Japanese and they've been in this yochien for 2 years and I haven't. Very often people actually start friendships and their own circles after my parties. Kids are my main goal, I make sure I chat with every kid and ask them questions and play with them, but I've made so many good connections with moms!
SPOOKY HALLOWEEN!