Here goes...
- Mini-games:
At my group's fall event, the Harvest Hoopla, we hold a few mini-games for the kids to play. Here's a few of them:
1. The pumpkin beanbag toss. Last year I purchased a 6' x 4' piece of playwood and drew a large pumpkin on it. I then cut it out to be just the pumpkin, and I cut out the eyes, nose and the mouth. I then painted it to match.
2. Pumpkin Ring Toss. We get donations from the local nurseries for pumpkins, hay bales, corn stalks, gourds, etc. We take about ten of the larger stemed pumpkins and use them as the targets for the rong toss. I found wooden hoops at the local fabric store.
3. Gourd Bowling. I purchased a set of those plastic children pins and then used some of the gourds from the nurseries. The gourds roll funny so it makes it more fun.
4. Ping-Pong Ball Toss. We purchased ten of the plastic pumpkin treak-or-treat containers that the kids use and had them placed as the target. I had a half dozen or so orange ping-pong balls that the kids have to toss in.
We use these mini-games as raffle games where depending on how they do they get extra raffle tickets for the free raffles throughout the night. The entry fee gets you one ticket per game, but you can purchase more. I guess you could use it for some other prize, such as candy, or just as a game, though the rafle idea works really well...
- A "Fun House" or "Spook House":
Whatever name you want to give it may depend on your age group. We are a K through 4, so we keep it more aural and visual than scary. Here's some different ideas for rooms:
1. A pumpkin patch. We use this room as our entry into the "fun house". We decorate the room with pumpkins, hay, corn stalks, ravens, scare crows, etc. This year we are going to display the pumpkins from the pumpkin carving/decorating contest (I'll explain that one next). Last year we purchased one of those large, inflatable displays that you can walk through. It looks like a big tree, with sound affects, etc. This is the actual entrance into the pumpkin patch room.
2. A Mad Scientist. The room should be dark/covered, but using neon, black lighting and a static orb the room looks pretty cool. A volunteer dressed as the mad scientist provides a place for the kids to look at insects/bugs/scales/etc. under a microscope. Could also perform non-dangerous experiments that will amaze the kids.
3. An Old Hag Room. Have a volunteer or two dressed as an old hag making a brew, in a cauldron. Have containers with various components, with labels on the container. Make it so the kids can not see into the container. The hags can then ask for assistance, saying "can you place a zombie tooth into the cauldron", or "Can you get me one bat wing", or something like that. The components can be things like dried corn kernals, licorace sticks, grapes, etc.
4. A Gypsy Fortune Teller. Have a volunteer dressed for the part sitting at a table. The kids can have their palm read and their horoscopes told. We are staying away from things like tarot cards and ouji boards though.
5. A Pirate Room. Have a few volunteers dressed as pirates who abduct the kids and force them to join their crew. Dress them in colored scarves and teach them sea chantees, dancing, maybe pirate music, etc. Would be really cool if the room could look like a pirate ship or cabin.
6. A Wizard Room. This is new for us this year. The idea is to have a wizard sitting in a rocking chair near a cauldron, with the room looking like a wizard's tower/room. The wizard will then tell a story of how there once was a knight who visited a Gypsy to find out where he would find his Princess. The Gypsy fortold of a tower where a fierce dragon kept a fair princess catured and that he must set out on a quest to save her. He then rode out and found the dragon. The dragon told the knight that if he could solve each of the tasks he had waiting him at the tower that he could take the princess away. The knight agreed and went to the tower. At the tower he found a large moat with no bridge. His armor was too heavy to swim across so he went out and saught the help from a wizard (the one telling the story). The wizard cast a spell and made the water diappear.
-At this point the wizard will perform his first illusion. We have a member who owns a company that makes absorbent products. One of the products is this super absobent powder. One table spoon will make a cup of water turn into a gel. So we are going to have a bunch of colored plastic cups with the powder inside. The wizard will have one of the kids pour a cup of the water into the cup. The powder works almost instantaneously, so the wizard will turn the cup upside down and presto, the water will be gone...
The wizard provided a magic amulet to the knight and told him that using the amulet he could call the wizard to him, no matter where he was. The knight crossed the moat and entered the tower. After he walked down a long hallway he found a gargoyle guarding two doors. The gargoyle explained that one door leads to the Princess, while the other leads to his destruction and that the only way that the knight could ever know for sure which door was the correct one was to be able to read the gargoyle's mind. The knight once again called the wizard to him to help him solve the riddle.
- The wizard then shows the kids these four cards that are posted one the wall. He picks one of the kids to pick a number between one and fifteen. The four cards each have eight numbers on them, no greater than 15. for example, card number one has the numbers 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13 and 15 (all the odd ones). Card #2 has 2, 3, 6, 7, 10, 11, 14 and 15. Card three starts with 4 and has 5, 6, 7, 12, 13, 14 and 15. The last card starts with 8 and has 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15. Each card will be a different color to make it easier for the kids. The wizard will have the child whisper the number to her friends. He'll then ask if it is on card number 1, the red one? How about card number 2, the gree one, etc., etc. Then, depending on which cards the child tells him her number is on he cane easily know the number she is thinking of. Here's the secret...
-You take the first number on the cards that the child tells you the number is on and it will add up to that number. For example, say the number is 13. 13 will be one the first card, and the 3rd and 4th, the ones that start with 1, 4 and 8. 1+4+8 = 13. the wizard is amazingly "reading" the child's mind. He'll do this for a couple of kids and then move on with the story.
Next the knight entered the correct door that took him up a winding staircase, all the way to the highest tower. He entered the room and found the most beutiful princess chained to the wall. He pulled his sword and brought it down upon the chains, but they did not break. The princess explained that the chains were magic and that nothing would be able to get her free. Once again the knight called the wizard to him.
- At this point the wizard takes out two metal hoops that are stuck together. This is the common magic trick that can be purchased in any magic shop. He has a couple of the children try to pull the rings apart, but no luck. He then takes the rings, says the magic words, and presto, they come apart.
The knight then took his princess and escaped from the tower, but the dragon was very mad that he was able to solve his riddles and was waiting for him outside. The dragon breathed in and was going to blow his fire at them. The knight quickly called the wizard to him who knew just what to do. He had them all jump into the dried moat and called the water back from where he made it disappear to. It appeared right when the dragon's flame burst forth, but instead of burning the knight, princess and the wizard it instead created a bellowing, dense fog and the moat burned away.
- At this point the wizard will state "Just like this" and he will raise his hand. Running up his arm is a hose that is connected to a fog machine that is activated with his other hand. The fog will shoot forth from the hose, but the kids will see it coming from his hand. He will then state that the knight and the princess exscaped in the cover of the fog and lived happily ever after, at which point he will say thank you for coming and I hope you enjoyed my story. We have found that the fog machine seems to continue to produce little spurts of fog even after the activation switch is shut off, so we put a cut off valve in line that can be turned with the wizard's other hand.
I'm going to stop here, though I'll try to get back and provide a bit more, like the DJ games and the pumpkin carving/decorating contest (it's done at home with parental supervision).
Hope this helps.
PresidentJim
