How to Plan an Amazing 2nd Grade Class Halloween Party [episode 96]

Emily
Hey there. Thanks for joining us today. In today’s episode, we’re planning a second grade class Halloween party and sharing a teacher approved tip for making any party run smoother. So we are quickly approaching our 100th episode.

Heidi
That is so wild. I guess we are legit podcasters now.

Emily
Heck yeah, we are.

Heidi
To celebrate our 100th episode, we would love to have 100 5 star reviews on Apple podcast.

Emily
We’re shooting for the stars. So if you think we deserve five stars, would you mind taking a few seconds and leaving us a rating? And if you really enjoy this podcast, would you mind leaving us a review? We’d love to get to 50 reviews before our 100th episode.

Emily
PJ just left this review. I absolutely love everything from Heidi and Emily. Their resources are fabulous. And their podcast is full of great information. And BTeach10 said, I love to learn new tips and tricks. This podcast always gives me new ideas to try in my classroom.

Heidi
Thank you so much you two, we really appreciate your kind words. And we are so glad you like the podcast. So as a thank you, PJ and BTeach10, will you please send us an email at [email protected] so that we can give you a little treat?

Heidi
So Emily here, perhaps foolishly or maybe wisely, has volunteered to be in charge of her second graders class Halloween party.

Emily
Yeah. I tried to volunteer for one class party for each of my elementary aged kids every year. So usually that means I’m doing a Halloween party for one and a Valentine party for the other. I’ve never had more than two in elementary school at the same time.

Emily
But usually I only sign up as a helper. But this year when I got to the signup very quickly, I have to say I got to that sign up very soon after it was posted. But all that was left was party organizers. So I just went with it. And I wouldn’t have signed up for it intentionally. But I’ve realized it will mean I get a bigger say in how the party goes. So that might actually be nice.

Emily
In the past, I’ve sometimes been biting my tongue a little about a room parent who has gone rogue in their planning, or a party that is just not running efficiently at all, which if you know us that is like my pet peeve of all time. So sometimes it’s hard to just know too much, you know. But I usually still try to just like go along for the ride and be in the background. But no, this year, I get to steer the ship a little bit.

Heidi
Well, I think you’ll do an amazing job. But it is a tough spot to be in. So last year in our episode 33 and 34 of our podcast, we did a deep dive into the wonderful stressful world of class parties. So go back and check those out if you want all of our tips and tricks. And since we know a lot of you will be having class parties come up in the next few weeks. We wanted to use today’s episode to plan a second grade Halloween party in real time.

Emily
So hopefully this will get your wheels turning for your own class parties that may be coming up.

Heidi
And hopefully this gets you started on the right foot Emily.

Emily
Yeah we’re doing a little double duty on my to do list today.

Heidi
We need more episodes like this. Can we do one on laundry maybe?

Emily
You guys let us know.

Heidi
So the key to a successful class party is having a clear focus of what you want to happen. And to figure this out, we have seven steps to consider.

Heidi
Step one is get clear on your vision. So you’re going to ask yourself, what do you want to happen? Step two is to get clear on your timeframe, you need to know when it’s happening. Step three is to get clear on your activities. So what is happening? Step four is to get clear on parent roles. Who is making this happen? Me. Hopefully you’re not the problem.

Heidi
Step five is get clear on supplies. What do you need to make this happen? Step six is to get clear on your game plan. How are we making this happen? And step seven is get it all cleared up. And how do we recover from what just happened?

Heidi
So we’re going to walk through these one at a time. And at the end Emily will have a comprehensive plan for what she needs to do to pull together a well organized but fun, enjoyable, lively class party for second grade specifically.

Heidi
So Emily, step one is to get clear on your vision. Do you know what you want to have happen at this party?

Emily
Yes, I think I know for sure we are going to do rotating stations, I just think that is pretty standard for class parties at this school that I’m at. But especially since there are always several parents who want to help. So it’s easiest to do that with rotating stations.

Emily
And in my experience, both as a teacher and a parent stations is by far the easiest way to have a call. No joke, that is so true. And planning is so much easier when you do stations too.

Emily
So there’s going to be four parent helpers plus me. So I’m thinking four rotations, or maybe five, I’m usually in favor of more rotations, but keep them short. The longer the rotation, the more time for some activities get done too quickly. And then there’s time for behavior management issues to arise. Again, when you think like a teacher, you can’t turn that off.

Emily
The trick was shorter rotations, though, is having really good transitions. Or it’s hard to fit that many rotations into the usually like one hour that’s scheduled for these parties. And since I’m the helper and not the teacher, in this situation, I’m not sure how much control I will have over how the transitions run.

Emily
So I’m kind of leaning towards four rotations. If I were playing this party, as a teacher, I’d for sure do five rotations and do them shorter. But maybe let’s plan five, just in case I want to run when to it’s good to have them planned out, even if I if we don’t do them all.

Heidi
Yeah, that’s a good way to look at it. Okay, so you’ve got a good handle on how you want this party to go.

Heidi
So step two is to get clear on your timeframe. And when is this happening? And I know the answer to this, and it’s just bananas to me. But maybe this is standard. And I’m just out of the loop.

Emily
I’m sure in some places, they do it this way too. But my kids school does the Halloween parade first thing in the morning, they do it outside to usually freezing. The parents are like, piled up in blankets on here, lawn chairs. It is it’s a pitiful sight.

Emily
And then the parties are usually for like an hour after that. But it’s so strange to me to do this first thing in the morning. I just like can’t wrap my head around it. The school I taught I always had the party and parade at the end of the day. But nobody consulted me, obviously. So I’m gonna have to go with what’s happening here. So I’ll have about an hour from when they come in from the parade until recess maybe a little more if the parades a little faster.

Heidi
I can see having it in the morning in the sense that like it’s probably easier for parents who need to get to work.

Emily
Yes. The parents get the kids right into the costumes in the morning. I see that too.

Heidi
Yes, that would be helpful. But then I just think from the teacher standpoint, that day is shot.

Emily
I can’t wrap my head around it like what they do for the rest of the day. No, sometimes it’s been early out, but not always. So we’ll see. I can’t remember if it’s really helped this year or not. For their sake. I hope it is.

Heidi
Yeah, I don’t know how you recover from that. Because we would do it in the afternoon like your school did. And so like it was really hard to kind of have a normal day. But I could still fit in some like Halloween math or we have a pretty normal morning.

Emily
The morning was pretty good. It’d be from lunch on that was a little.

Heidi
It wasn’t a nightmare to try and manage and get things done in the day. I think if I had the party in the morning, I would just like throw up my hands be like yo, hope you like Charlie Brown’s Halloween.

Emily
Parade and the party are done by morning recess, the first recess of the day. They’re done with all the festivities. Like maybe the kids are tuckered out after that, but I’m gonna guess not.

Heidi
And then tired, tired hyper kids are even worse. Anyway, nobody asked us that’s the lesson we’ve learned.

Heidi
Okay, Emily, step three, so get clear on your activities. So what is happening?

Emily
All right, so I’m gonna plan five stations just in case. So the first one obviously is Bingo. That is just the like every party you’re doing Bingo. And that I’m gonna do that. I’ll put together a printable Halloween bingo game for this station and provide Smarties for making the boards.

Emily
I like Smarties for this because they’re not sticky. And they come with a bunch of them already pre packed perfect. So they’re easy to pass out and they’re cheap and they’re allergen free. So win win win.

Heidi
That is a nice one. Will you have like another prize for kids that get Bingo? Are you just like downplaying the competition at all costs?

Emily
I have run this Bingo station myself at many across party and I have never had prizes perfect, because I just think it’s then whoever doesn’t get them as disappointed. Yep. And so I try and just make it for the fun of the game. We try and go for blackout, you know? Yeah. At worst case scenario, you could have a bigger treat or some dinky little prize that everybody gets at the end of the rotation, but I personally would not want to deal with prizes.

Heidi
Yeah, don’t don’t add to the complication of this. Okay, station two.

Emily
That’s going to be a craft. If I were running the station, I would order cheap craft kits from Oriental Trading because that’s how I roll. I’d rather pay some money and not have to do any prepping.

Emily
Yeah, but for a really easy one you can’t go wrong with like tissue paper. for ghosts, you just get a sucker like a Tootsie Pop for each kiss, or for they cover it with a tissue or maybe a couple of tissues to give it some layers. And then you secure that with like a rubber band or a twisty tie. And then they can draw on a ghost face, or maybe add some other accessories like bow ties or your bows, you know.

Emily
This simplest, this would be literally the simplest craft if you needed like the absolute easiest thing to do. But also, if you have a 15 minute station, this is not going to fail the whole time.

Heidi
I saw when yesterday took a picture because oh, this could work for Emily for you give them like a construction paper and they draw like a big ghost outline on it. And then with like a white crayon, and then they fill it in, they glue cotton balls in to fill it in.

Heidi
And that I think would be second grade heaven of just like gluing these cotton balls. And I know Eloise would be all over that. And then he just they just cut out a like a little symbol face from black construction paper and glue that on and it’s done. So I thought that was an easy one.

Emily
That is a cute idea. I’ll have to think about that.

Heidi
Okay, so we’ve got two stations down do you have ideas for the rest?

Emily
Well, I’m thinking something more active for station three. So I think I would tend to do something like our house something from our Halloween brain breaks. Oh, that’s fun, or like a minute to win it sort of game just there’s so many of those. I’m not even going to like specifically pick one here because there’s so many to pick from. And also my parent helpers are probably gonna want some say and the things they do here. So I’m trying not to be like too rigid about what I planned.

Emily
But something more active is what I’m thinking. Station four. I’m thinking cookie decorating the standard. I don’t feel like there’s ever a class party I’ve helped out that didn’t have cookie decorating. Personally, I hate it. It’s not a session I would ever volunteer to man because it’s the licking of the knives I cannot take it.

Heidi
Because if you do it you have to have each kid needs their own disposable knife and a baggie to take their any cookie.

Emily
It’s just I can’t handle it. So I would be very open to the idea of a different snack activity here tio if parents had another idea, but I think I would suggest cookie decorating unless they have a different idea.

Heidi
I know our friend Cassidy always did like dipping Nutter Butters and they put chocolate chip eyes on.

Emily
Oh, I did that with my kids at home last year. That’s a good idea.

Heidi
As long as no one’s allergic to peanuts.

Emily
Yeah. And now I’m trying to remember this her class might be one that does have a peanut allergy. I don’t think meals does.

Heidi
But I guess you could go fancy and do Milanos

Emily
Too expensive. They weren’t appreciate.

Heidi
Okay, any ideas on a fifth station since you’re just kind of working on that?

Emily
I’m torn on this one because personally, I love to have a story station where it’s just having a more calm one especially if you do this one like after the minute to win it games. And just do reading Halloween books. And I have a whole stack of Halloween books.

Emily
And if this is the station that I have demand, this is 100% what I’m doing because I love reading and I have a really awesome and not at all out of control selection of Halloween books to pick from. So I’m thinking that’s what I would do for station five. If I ended up mounting a station. I think that’s the one I will do.

Heidi
Another simple idea is like building toothpicks structures with those candy pumpkins that are kind of like giant Yeah, the only thing is like what you do with that after?

Emily
Yeah, I do love a stem activity. If we can figure out one that doesn’t just mean like a whole bunch of random things going home in the backpack of like, what do you do with this?

Heidi
Okay, step four, parent roles. Who’s making this happen? And this is tricky because we’re a little bit early recording this.

Emily
And I’m not the teacher in this scenario, I’m the parent. So I know that I am in charge of it. But I don’t know much more beyond that. And I know who signed up. And there’s only there were only spots for four parents to help plus me.

Emily
So my ideal situation with a class party like this, if I were the one running, it would be that I would be the photographer. Yeah. So then I can wander around, I can make sure we’re getting all the pictures for the teacher to send to the parents or whatever. And I can also be troubleshooting behavior issue.

Emily
What do you think the teacher would do? I don’t know about this teacher specifically. So like, believe me, this is not shade or her because so far, I think she’s great. But I have been a helper class parties where the teachers at her desk working the whole time and not doing crowd control, it’s like blows my mind.

Emily
I’m more than willing and able to do crowd control, as long as I don’t have to be mounting a station. So I would like to be doing that and taking pictures. I’m just not sure if we’ll be able to in this scenario, but yeah, it’s tricky.

Heidi
And then another thing to keep in mind with you know, is the size of the class, right? You don’t want you know, like six or seven kids at one station, right?

Emily
And I haven’t been given an exact number yet, but I would be surprised if it’s less than 24 which means six at a station if we only do four. So I feel like we’re probably going to have to do the five stations.

Emily
But I do like that idea that we shared last year somebody had suggested it and we share it on the podcast to have somebody have their role be the photographer so I do really like that idea. Not sure I’m gonna be able to do it in this party with the amount of people I have to help.

Emily
But I think I’m, I’m planning to send out an email, once I get the green light from the teacher, I will just link everybody to a Google doc to like, put in the details of what they want to do, and that kind of thing.

Heidi
That’s a smart way to get everyone organized. And on the same page.

Emily
Yeah, and then I can put in my suggestions and link to anything I want to link to, like, if you need an idea, here’s this one, if you want to do something else feel free.

Emily
And I am trying to stay open to the possibility that some of these parents might come in with a really strong idea of what you want to do. And it might not be any of these stations I’ve suggested. And I don’t want to cause any drama. So I am, this is a loose plan for stations for people who don’t want to think but if somebody has a strong opinion, we will of course adapt.

Heidi
And as a teacher, assigning yourself to be the class photographer is another way to kind of like, stay engaged without feeling like you’re micromanaging the parent, right? Because parents are watching you. Even if they’re you know, they’re to run the party. They’re watching the teacher. So you definitely want to at least look like you’re involved with what’s happening. Yeah, and being a photographer is a great way to do that.

Emily
Yeah, for sure. And I do think if you are the teacher and you want a party that doesn’t get out of control, I think giving specific guidelines to the parents ahead of time of what sort of activities you’re okay with and not okay with would be helpful.

Emily
Also, I think as the teacher, you would be well within your prerogative to assign out the stations of like, these are the specific stations I want. And let people sign up for those if you want to keep it a little bit more under control, which as a teacher, I would for sure want things to be that way. But again, I’m in the parent role in this situation. So it’s a little bit of a role reversal that I’m getting used to. So anyways, let’s move on. Okay, so

Heidi
Okay, so step five, is to get clear on supplies, what do you need to make this happen? So having your Google Docs is a great way to get that all sorted out.

Emily
And I think just linking to all of my ideas for them, and having an idea in place of what activities they could do if they need ideas, but every parent will provide their own materials, I’ll really only need to do my own. And if I end up doing stories, I don’t really particularly have to do anything for that.

Emily
If somebody does want to do the bingo one, I pretty sure I have one already prepped and saved from doing it myself in the past. I’ll probably offer that one up if they want it.

Heidi
That’s a smart way to do it. As a teacher, if I was having parents come in, I would usually try and get stuff myself because I didn’t Oh, this sounds terrible. But I didn’t trust that they would have they would get everything they needed. Yeah. early enough.

Heidi
You know, as the teacher, I know, like, Okay, if we’re going to do this pumpkin toothpick building thing, I gotta buy these pumpkins early. Because if we’re someone’s trying to buy him October 30, they might not be able to find a class set somewhere. Right?

Heidi
If it was seasonal, I’m kind of like stock up on that ahead of time craft kits, same thing. Like, it is too much stress for me to have to like, pull this together last second, because a parent just doesn’t have the background.

Emily
Yeah. And I also think it is a good idea for the teacher to have like, make sure you’ve got plastic knives, if you’re going to be doing the cookie decorating and things like that. Just have them on hand in case the parent doesn’t think of it.

Heidi
Yep. Of the napkins and the paper plate. Yeah. Oh. It’s the worst. You just see like, they can’t help good, that nice. And then frosting.

Emily
They almost never want to immediately eat the cookies. And then the cookie has to live somewhere for the rest of the day. And then they carry it home and also don’t eat it. And it’s a nightmare, basically. But I do think that that’s just a standard activity. And I’m guessing that’s what will happen at this party. But not by me. I’m not doing that station.

Heidi
Plastic bags, disposable knives, washed hands full of through it. Okay, step six, get clear on your game plan. So how are we making this happen? Who’s getting supplies? Who’s setting up? It sounds like you’ve got a plan.

Emily
I know. I think we kind of covered this in their previous steps. I think we have a game plan.

Heidi
Hey, that’s good. It doesn’t sound like we have experienced doing this at all. PTSD from doing this at all. Oh, one thing we didn’t talk about that was like getting it set up. How do you handle that when the parade is right before it and it’s right when school starts.

Emily
So what we have done in the past that’s actually worked pretty well with this is that you go out to watch just the kid you need to watch in the parade, which is a trouble. It was tricky the year that I had kids in two totally different grades over there that I needed to go help with one of their parties. So making sure I saw both of them.

Emily
But I found the younger ones came out first. So I saw that one first. And then I just went and walked towards the end of the line until I found the older ones and then I could go head in if you’re doing a party, they let you go in and so as soon as soon as I’d seen my kid I’d go in and go set up for the party then.

Heidi
Oh that’s good. That makes a difference.

Emily
Yes, it does.

Heidi
Okay, so step seven is getting it all cleared up. How do we recover from what just happened?

Emily
And the good thing I guess with having this in the morning is it goes right up until recess and so we have a quick like amount of time right then that we can quickly clean up.

Emily
I find that the parents who come in to volunteer are usually pretty quick at cleaning up their stations anyway, if we if you did have to do it on a tight timeframe, but it’s nice to have a little bit of time and help that teacher get the room back to normal as much as you can before they come back in from recess.

Heidi
That is helpful. And you know, bringing a couple extra garbage bags or if you’re the teacher having some extra garbage bags there can make it so much quicker just to get it all packed up and out the door so you can get on with your day.

Heidi
Well, I think I don’t know, Emily, are you feeling we can’t get handle?

Emily
Yes, I think so. I mean, we’ll see how it all shakes out. Because the parents coming in with their other ideas is the variable in all of this.

Heidi
Someone shows up with a pin yada, and there’s nowhere to hang it?

Emily
Yeah, I’ve seen some pretty wild things come in where I’m like, what were you thinking? Yeah, that’s, that’s the problem, because they just get so excited. And they don’t think things through.

Heidi
You see the idea online, and you just don’t know how to interpret that for your first seven year old.

Emily
That’s why I’m hoping giving them some suggested categories will narrow that down, and also reminding them of like, the timeframe? Yes, we only have 10 minutes. So it needs to be something that can be fully wrapped up in 10 minutes.

Heidi
Very smart. Yeah. So hopefully, if you have a Halloween party coming up soon, this gave you some good ideas to get started with your own planning. As adults, we tend to think that for it to feel like a party, it has to be big in order to feel fun. But that really isn’t true.

Emily
It’s totally not true. Kids are so happy with the simplest of things. Truly, the things that entertain kids are the simplest.

Heidi
Yeah, anything out of the ordinary really feels like a special activity. So just shaking it up a little bit is already going to make it feel like a party. So don’t feel like you need a pinata. Unless that’s really important to you. For sure.

Heidi
Well, we would love to hear your thoughts on class parties. We know we’ve got some amazing tips and tricks from our listeners out there. So please come join the conversation in our teacher approved Facebook group. Or you can connect with us on Instagram at @2ndstorywindow. And that’s with a two.

Emily
Now let’s talk about this week’s teacher proof tip. Each week, we leave you with a small actionable tip that you can apply in your classroom today. This week’s teacher approved tip is plan a time filler activity when you have class parties.

Heidi
So one of the things that make class parties tricky to manage is that they often come with a lot of waiting around time for the kids.

Heidi
You know, the kids might end up waiting while the party is being set up, they might end up waiting to take their turn in a game if there’s you know, a large group, they might finish their station early and end up waiting to rotate, they might need to wait while the party is cleaned up and then the room is set back in order.

Heidi
And because of all of the novelty of everything going on in to set up this party, you can bet that waiting time is going to turn into getting out of control time.

Emily
And one of the keys of classroom management is keeping a balance between novelty and structure. So when the novelty is high, like on a class party day, we have to counteract it by increasing structure.

Heidi
And that is why I love to use a work packet as my time filler on party days. And I hate saying that out loud because it sounds so boring. But if you use some themed worksheets and maybe throw in a holiday word search, genuinely, honestly, the kids think it’s a treat.

Emily
It’s totally true. Plus, I think kids really appreciate being reined in a little. They want some boundaries. Most kids don’t like feeling out of control. So even if they can’t express it, they actually welcome an activity that can regulate their excitement a bit.

Heidi
And so that’s another reason I think why work packets are a win. It gives kids something low key to do with all of that excited energy. And Emily, I know it’s different with your kids school.

Heidi
But like when we were teaching our parties, we’re always in the afternoon. So I tried to keep my morning super routine, relying on our regular structure like that help tame some of the crazy. I was always surprised on Halloween mornings how chill they were doing their morning work. And my kids came in costumes. So it’d be like looking at like, oh, there’s a unicorn and there’s a dinosaur and there’s an astronaut I’ll do in the morning work silently. I don’t know what happened, but it worked.

Heidi
And then instead of starting our first lesson, I would introduce the work packet. I purposefully included more activities than the kids could do at one sitting when I was organizing this packet.

Emily
And if you really want to maximize your copies, you can shrink your originals down to 50%. Then you can copy two worksheets on each side of the page. Then you get four activities on each sheet of paper.

Heidi
Which is quite a bargain. So with four pages, you can have 16 worksheets, and that’s enough to keep kids busy for a long time. Yep. And when it came time to set up the class party, my students had already had a little work time with their packets so they could easily get back into it while everything not arrange.

Heidi
I had already gone through page by page with them and answer other questions so they could just get started. While the parents and I set everything up they had something to keep them busy and then I would have them keep those packets on their desks during the party. And if they were at a station that they finished early, they just went back to their desks and worked for a few minutes, so they weren’t goofing off messing with stuff causing problems.

Emily
Yeah, this is heading off problems and advanced by having this fast finisher ready to go.

Heidi
Which is our favorite management tip. Yep. And by the time the party was over, though, like they could go back to the work packets, but I would usually put on a video at that point, like kids that were still really invested in those packets would continue to work on them. But, you know, at that point, we’re all tired, let’s let’s just chill out with little Garfield Halloween.

Emily
So if you plan ahead, you can really get a whole day’s use out of a single work packet.

Heidi
And that’s definitely a win on a day was so much craziness.

Heidi
To wrap up the show, we are sharing what we’re giving extra credit to this week, Emily, what gets your extra credit?

Emily
So I’m giving extra credit to the Zevo Flying Insect Trap. Okay, so it is like a plug in device that’s just like kind of a white almost like I don’t even know how to describe it kind of like rounded cylinder sort of half. And on the back. It’s sticky. And then in there, there’s a little like blue light. So it’s facing between the device and your wall. So it’s not glaring at you. It’s coming out the sides, okay.

Emily
And then the insects get attract to it fly around the side of it and get stuck on the inside. And then that little like sticky thing you can pull out from the top and just switch out. Oh, nice. So the device itself was like $20 I got mine at Walmart. And then you just have little refills. I’m not sure I haven’t done a refill yet because I just got it recently. But the refills it looks like two for $7. So not that bad. Yeah.

Emily
And they seem to work. I mean, it says it captures houseflies. I haven’t found that to be true thing. I haven’t had a lot to test it but it for sure works with like fruit flies and gnats and mosquitoes. Mosquitoes. Oh, yes, of course.

Heidi
Well that’s a good trick.

Emily
What are you giving extra credit to Heidi?

Heidi
So my extra credit goes to the book Just Go With It by Madison Wright. I just finished I loved it. The full title of this book on Amazon is listed as just go with it a second chance marriage of convenience romantic comedy. Nashville is calling book one. So that pretty much tells you everything you need to know.

Heidi
In this book, low reunites with her college crush at a time when she’s desperate for health insurance. And he needs to rehabilitate his image as a famous Tik Toker. So of course the only solution is for them to get fake married. It’s a fun read no opendoor scenes, I really enjoyed the characters really good characters. And I highly recommend if you want some fluffy rom com escapism.

Emily
I’ll add it to the list. I’m always game.

Heidi
That’s it for today’s episode. Start on those Halloween party plans. And don’t forget our teacher approved tip to use a work packet as a time filler on a party day.