With Halloween only a week away, we thought we'd share some ideas for simple spooky party games that your little monsters will love to play, and that take slightly little effort to organize:
• Ghost Hunt – cut out ghost shapes from white paper or card (allow approximately 4 – 5 per guest). Hide them around the house and garden and get your little guests to find them. (If you have different age groups of children, you may want to give the youngest ones a head start.) The child who finds the most ghosts is the winner. This is also a great game to play near the end of the party and you will not have to provide filled party bags either. Stick a small treat to each ghost before hiding, give each child an empty party bag and let them fill them with what they find.
• Ten-Pin Pumpkin bowling – part-fill 10 similar size plastic bottles with a small stones and gravel, so that they stand, and do not fall over too easily. (If you have time, or are feeling creative, you can also decorate them to look like monsters.) Draw a scary face on a mini pumpkin – this will be the bowling ball. Line your bottles up and let the children take it in turns to knock them over with the pumpkin, keeping score as they go. The child with the highest score is the winner.
• Yucky Dip – scoop out a pumpkin and fill with cooked, cooled pasta. Add small packets of sweets or wrapped tricks and mix well. Invite your little guests to take turns at the yucky dip – be warned this can get messy!
• The Haunted Jar – fill a jar with small sweets or toys and shredded white paper (making a note of how many goodies you've put in!). Each child then guesses how many items are in the jar and the closest guess wins the goodies!
• Musical monsters – put on some spooky music, and get your little guests to move around like monsters. When the music stops they have to stand still – if they move, they're out of the game. The last monster standing still is the winner!
• Trick or Treat – cut up squares of paper. On half of the squares, write 'treat'. On the other half, write 'trick' on one side of the paper and a simple activity (such as 'cackle like a witch') on the other side. Fold the squares up and put them all into a bucket (or cauldron if you want to be inventive). The children then take it in turns to pull a piece of paper out of the bucket. If they pull out a 'treat', give them a small prize. If they pull out a 'trick', they must perform the task written on the back before receiving their prize.
• The Graveyard game – this is a great game to play when you want to quiet the party down. Your little monsters lie down in the 'graveyard' – the child who stands still the longest is the winner.
And finally, how do monsters predict their future? They read their 'horror' scope!