My school is hosting a Harvest Fun Family Night. We try to focus our activities on games and activities that reinforce either English Language Arts or Mathematics.

Here's one idea for a game that can be used at an event like this (I'll share a few more over the next few days):

Cornfield Bowling (or Cornfield Ring Toss)

Materials needed: ten one-quart milk cartons, brown wrapping paper (e.g. butcher paper), yellow and green construction paper, markers, tennis ball or rings (depending on which game you want to the participants to play). Note: the rings could be made from plastic plates that had their inner portion cut out.

Instructions for making the bowling pins or ring toss targets:

1. Fold over the top of ten one-quart milk cartons and seal with packing tape (or duct tape). Cover each carton with brown wrapping paper. (Note: If you are going to be playing ring toss, you might want to add some or dirt inside each carton before sealing them.)
2. Draw 10 ears of corn (the size of the length of the milk cartons) on yellow construction paper. Cut them out and glue an ear of corn on one side of each carton.
3. Draw 20 leaves (just a little taller than the corn) on green construction. Cut them out and glue them around the corn. Note: if you can use colored exact index paper and a copier rather than drawing the patterns by hand, your task will be easier.
4. Draw 10 enlarged kernels on yellow construction paper (big enough to cover the top portion of the milk cartons), number them from 1-10, cut them out and glue one on the top of each of the milk cartons.

To play: Set up the ten ears of corn in the configuration used for bowling pins.
Depending on the game you are using, the players adds up the sum of the pieces that they either bowled over or caught with a ring. In theory, either one of these games involves one turn per player, but you might have to allow extra turns (or move the player closer to the pins) before the person succeeds in his/her attempt to knock down or ring any pins.] Younger players can have their parents or older siblings help with the addition.

Award different prizes depending on the sum. You can figure out how you want to handle that using a range of numbers. One of the prizes could be a small bag of popcorn.

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*I just received an email from crayola.com that mentioned some games and activities that relate to fall. I have to leave for work soon, so I need to get offline now. I'll share that information later.

I'm thinking that the families could even be provided with a list of some of these sites to check out after the fact, too. Though, unfortunately, many of the families of the children I work still don't have computers in their homes. The lists could come in handy when they use the public library, though.

-Patricia, aka Murf the Surf
groups.yahoo.com/group/Elementary-Lesson-Share/
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Our FFF is before Halloween, so we do a "Pumpkin Walk"....if its in November, is that too late for scarecrows?? You could do class competitions, have them set up on your front lawn and they get to be judged. The class that wins gets ice cream at lunch the next week. We do booths, nail painting, rub on tatoos, face painting,etc. for a quarter a booth. We also coordinate with the PE teachers to do relays, games, etc. You know, 3 legged race, egg-spoon carry, gunny sack race, wheelbarrow races, etc. There are a ton of things to do. What about a Variety Show or a dance? Have you talked about doing dinner? Maybe pre-paid meals for families attending? This way, Mom doesn't have to cook!This is always a big seller in our school. You could set up in different areas of the school, outside and inside to have all sorts of activities going on. What about recipe exchanges? Ask parents to bring in a favorite recipe for a Thanksgiving dish, and you can have a table set up to put them on. Someone lays theirs down, and picks a new one up for a recipe swap!

I'm rambling,sorry! GOOD LUCK!!

[ 09-29-2004, 03:39 PM: Message edited by: Clevelandprez2 ]

We have a fall family festival in November. We ususally have this event just crafts, but another parent asked to have some type of games/activities other than just crafts. Does any one have any ideas? Last year the theme was 'Let it Snow', we did all snow related crafts. This year we are going with 'Let's Go Outdoors'. Any thoughts.