While we do usually teach Halloween words, for us the main aim of a party class is to give students a break from studying, relax, and learn a little about western culture. Traditional games played in England for Halloween include bobbing for apples, and the classic game of trying to eat marshmallows hanging from string, and although it would certainly be fun to teach these games, students may have allergies, or may just refuse to eat food on the grounds that they dislike the taste.
Lesson length : 40 to 50 minutes
Class size : Small Group class
Preparation time : 5 – 60 minutes to prepare the “Paper Cup Evaders” game (Depending on the level of detail), 5 – 30 minutes to prepare the “Melt the Witch”, and 20+ minutes (depending on how much detail goes into the maze) to prepare the “Mini Golf” game, and flashcards.
Materials :
- For “Paper Cup Evaders” : 5 Paper cups decorated as different Halloween monsters for each team, and a set of flash cards that match the monsters of the cups
- For “Melt the Witch” : A sponge or wet paper tissues, a whiteboard, whiteboard markers
- For the “Monster Sumo" craft and game : Paper and coloring crayon or pencils to decorate the monsters
- For “Mini Golf” : A mini-sized golf club (Sometimes available at one dollar stores, or if not one can be made with a toothpick with a bead glued to the end), a mini golf course (We made ours with cardboard and left-over materials found around the school)
Instructions
1. Teachers show the flashcards to the class, and have students repeat the new Halloween vocabulary after the teacher. If students have come in costume, and any students are wearing the same costumes as the flashcards, match those to the students.
2. Play “Paper Cup Evaders” : Instructions can be accessed by left-clicking the button below. The game can be played with cups of different colors, however for a halloween theme, why not play your game with cups decorated with different monsters as we have in the picture to the right.
3. Play the “Melt the Witch” : Instructions can be accessed by left-clicking the button below.
4. For a simple and fun paper craft that leads directly to a game, make paper sumo wrestlers such as the one found at the link below:
https://www.pinterest.jp/pin/1055599892182028/
Instead of sumo wrestlers, have students decorate their finished origami craft with pictures of monsters. Then, once their monster sumo battlers are complete play a tournament of paper sumo. Students place their wrestlers on one side of a book (the ring) facing each other, and on go tap their side of the book to make their wrestler slowly move around the "ring". If a wrestler falls over or out of the ring, the remaining wrestler is declared the champion.
5. For an exciting way to end the class, prepare a game of mini halloween golf, such as the one in our "More Halloween Games" page. This will require a lot of extra preparation, depending on the level of detail that you put into the game, but your students will surely appreciate your work, and have a fantastic, creepy time playing the game.
