It's that time of year when getting children moving gets a little bit spooky! These Halloween games are perfect for kids' parties, indoors and out.
Where did we get these Halloween party game ideas? TCT is where you will find two of our physios who lead a double life!! As well as working as part of the TCT team, Wendy Joy and Jane Reynolds are known as the Storycises Physios. They are committed to sharing their fun ideas and getting children active and experimenting with movement.
In purple are just a few of the skills the children are working on when playing these games.
1 Musical Spooky Statues - dance around until you are out of breath and when the music stops strike a spooky pose! Stamina and stillness.
2 Wink Murder- Sit in a group, each draw a piece of paper out of a hat, the person who picks the ‘M’ on their piece of paper is the murderer. They will then wink at people who then lie down dead. Can you guess who the murderer is before it’s too late! Turn taking, stillness, eye tracking, motor control.
3. Eyeball and spoon race - Draw an eye on some ping-pong balls and race with your eye and spoon! Maybe experiment with walking forwards /backward or sideways! Motor planning and eye-hand coordination.
4 Hunt the witches’ cats - cut out some pictures of cats and hide them around your home/setting to be looked for and found. Stamina, movement planning and eye tracking.
5 What’s in the Cauldron? Use a box with a picture of a cauldron on the front or cover a bucket with a black bag and cut a slit in the top - Make a feely box and hide some suitably spooky/autumny items in there!! E.g. toy spider, leaf, conker, ‘eye ball’, toy mouse. Ask the children to place their hand in and say what they feel, then guess the item before pulling it out. Proprioception and sensory integration.
6 Stick the nose on the witch game - Use a blindfold, spin the child 3 times and place in front of a picture of the witch, and ask them to stick the crooked nose on her! You can draw the outline of a witch on some lining paper and use noses drawn on white stickers for noses! Proprioception, co-ordination and spatial awareness.
7 Spooky memory master! – Place some suitably spooky/autumny items on a tray - let the children look and then cover them up. Then ask them to remember and list what they saw, or you can remove one item and see if they can work out what is missing Visual memory, visual perception and spatial awareness.
8 My Mummy! – Race to see who can wrap their ‘mummy model’ first using a whole toilet roll. Body awareness, grading and co-ordination.
9 Spooky pairs – provide a sheet with some seasonal pictures on. Cut up an identical sheet and hide the pictures around your home/setting - high/low/in/next to/on- now go and see which ones you can match up and tick them off as you find your spooky pairs! Motor planning and visual perception.
10 Keep the pumpkins in the air - have two teams or two or three individuals and some orange balloons. The winner or winning team are the ones that keep batting the balloon up into the air the longest, stopping it from falling onto the floor. Stamina, eye/hand co-ordination and spatial awareness.
11 Pumpkin pass – Have two teams standing in a line and use an orange balloon for each row. The person at the front of the line holds the balloon in between their knees and then passes it to the next person's knees (no hands can help) and so on along the line.
The person at the end then runs to the front and repeats. The game ends when the first person gets to the front of the line again. Body awareness, motor planning and grading.
12 Apple Bobbing – place some apples and water in a large bucket or bowl and without using your hands try and catch the apple with your teeth. Motor planning, co-ordination and spatial awareness.
We hope that you have a spooktacular time getting your bodies moving with these Halloween activities for kids!