Halloween Games for My Daycare??

Drop the spider in a hat....you can find this stuff at dollar stores...have them lean over a chair and try to aim to land teh spider (or whatever) into a bucket or a hat...then pass out stickers if they get oen in...

What about a Ghost Hunt? Cut out a bunch of ghosts out of paper and place them semi-hiding around the room. They can hunt for them and then decorate them (or in the case of the youngest, just keep them) after they find them?

Most of the games I can think of from childhood are probably too germy for today, but what about...

1. bobbing for apples - kids try to pick up apples floating in a tub of water with their mouths/teeth

2. marshmallow eating contest -hang a large marshmallow from a string and kids try to eat it with no hands, or hands held behind their back. )

3. peanut relay- kids have to push a peanut (shell and all) on the ground while on hands and knees, with their nose from point A to point B. Usually about a yard or more. Whoever crosses the finish line first, wins.

4. Bean relay- everyone sits around a long table. A rectangle shaped table is best because you can easily create two teams by dividing the table down the middle. In front of each participant is an empty small plastic bowl and a straw. The person who is the head of the table for each team has his/her bowl filled with 20 Pinto beans or some other large sized bean, and a straw. As soon as a referee yells "start", the head of the table for both teams uses their straw to suck up one bean, and then releases the bean into the empty bowl of the person next to them without dropping it, or using their hands. If successful, the head of the table continues dropping beans into the bowl next to him. If they drop the bean, it goes back into the bowl and the person tries again until they successfully get the bean into the next bowl without dropping it.

Meanwhile, the second person does the same, and sucks up the bean and without dropping it, releases the bean in the bowl of the person next to him. The process continues until all of the beans make their way down the line to the last bowl in the line. The winner is the team that successfully fills the last person in their line's bowl completely with all of the team's beans.

To make this Halloween themed, you could use ping pong balls made to look like eyeballs, or perhaps buy some Halloween themed marshmallows and use those instead. You might have to use less of these items because they are much bigger.

5. Blindman's art- All the kids are blindfolded and given 5 minutes to draw a picture. It's a hoot to see the weird stuff they have when it's over. Tell them to make it a spooky picture, or have them draw a Jack o Lantern face.

6. Memory game- Fill a large serving tray with all kinds of bizarre and fun items. Have the kids stand around a table to look but not touch the items for about 5 minutes. Then send them on their way and ask them to write a list of everything they can remember seeing. Whoever remembers the most wins. To make this game more challenging, ask the kids to remember all of things that start with a certain letter of the alphabet. Or if the items are Halloween themed, ask them to list all of the orange items or things that have to do with a haunted house... or mix halloween and non halloween stuff and have them list only the halloween stuff.

7. Mystery box. Have the kids stick their hands in a creepy looking box full of weird rubbery trinkets and have them guess what things are. To make it Halloween themed you can use fake puke, fingers, spiders, skeletons, or what ever other halloween themed stuff you can find. The person who guesses the most stuff wins.

Let them roll marshmallows (the giant ones) with their nose or carry them on a spoon.

Drop the close pins in the bottle.

How about doing some sort of pumpkin matching or memory game. You could get a bunch of small or plastic pumpkins and draw pairs with the same face then have the kids have to match them up. You could also get some pumpkins and make some sort of shape on the bottom of them, again in pairs, and place them in a grid pattern like a Memory game and have the kids choose pumpkins and turn them over looking and remembering for the same shape on the bottom.

You could fill a glass with candy corns and count them out and see how many are there. The 5 y/o and maybe the 4 y/o could guess how many are in there first.

You could also carve a pumpkin and then roast the seeds for a snack. The kids could help you scoop out the guts, they'd probably like that.

I think the 1 y/os are going to be hard to get involved in a game, but maybe a little bowling game like someone else suggested or the witch hunt, they could maybe do that with some help.

You could also get real pumpkins, smallish size, and have the kids decorate them with markers of foam Halloween stickers. My daughter has done that before and really enjoys it.

You could have apples and caramel dip or do apples dipped in chocolate and then they can dip them again in sprinkles or nuts or whatever. They could slice their own apple with a plastic knife. You can make pumpkin bread or cookies. That would be a big group to help you, but maybe if the little ones nap, the older kids could help mix and stir and butter the pan.

bowling with a gourd - those cheapo plastic bowling pins and use funny shaped gourds as the ball.

ghost toss - bean bag toss - have your daughter help you decorate a cardboard box or piece of cardboard as a haunted house. sew up a few bean bags using white fleece - you can use a sharpie to draw on faces.