The time of year is upon us where ghouls, spirits, werewolves, zombies and vampires arise and gather to frighten, capture, scare, possess, and most of all get down and have a good time at the Halloween party.

Here are some ideas to make that party more fun.

Costumes Everyone at the party has to dress appropriatley, and this means wearing a costume of the undead. Pets are excluded as they already have costume parts built in – Dogs have fangs, cats have claws, birds have scary wings, and small creatures such as hamsters have glowing red eyes. Everyone who walks on two legs however, needs to be one of the following.

• Vampire – A blood drinking daemon that lives off the blood of other creatures. Vampires are made by other vampires and often have extravagant names like Count Dracula. If you decide to be a vampire, make sure you create an extravagant name for yourself.
• Ghost – The spirit of a dead person returned from the undead to haunt a person or a place. Normally ghosts haunt something or someone for a reason, if you go as a ghost, what happened to you to make your spirit come back from the dead?
• Zombie – Monsters that come back from the undead and walk slowly with their hands out in front of them. They exist to create more zombies and that is really horrible. If you go as a Zombie, don’t worry, you wont have to walk slowly for too long, especially when the games start.
• Werewolf – When the moon is full and darkness descends people who are werewolves transform into huge hounds and hunt others until it is daylight. Once the moon phase shifts and it is no longer a full moon, then people do not become werewolves at night until another full moon…A werewolf is created when a person is bitten by another werewolf. Werewolves do not like silver as it can hurt them. If you go as a werewolf, do not worry, you will not have to eat dog food, so ice cream is still on the menu for you.
• Witch -Cackle cackle boil and bubble, and other witch spells can be used to make the food taste nicer at a Halloween party and should be used whenever possible. Witches are girls that cast spells and make potions. They normally have pointed hats and ride about on broomsticks. At Halloween parties however, they tend to eat ice cream and play games. Thankfully.

This is not all the costumes that can be worn at a Halloween party, and why not try and get creative by combining costumes! Why not be a pirate-vampire instead of a vampire, or instead of a zombie, a Knight-zombie? Maybe  instead of a werewolf, a werehamster?

Halloween Decorations

Ideally, the place where you have the party should be made to look as spooky as possible. Maybe scary pictures on the wall, scary objects such as spiders could be hanging from the ceiling.  The scarier the better!

Halloween Music

Probably best left to Mum or Dad, Halloween music needs to be scary yet at the same time it needs to facilitate dancing. A catchy beat about monsters, vampires, ghosts and possibly goblins always goes down well.

The Playgameshavefun Witch can often be seen dancing to these tunes:

Werewolves of London by Zevon

Monster by The Automatic

Monster Mash by Bob

by ‘Boris’ Picket and the Cryptkickers

If you can’t find any suitable music, you will be surprised to learn that your parents have tried to learn to play the guitar long ago when they were young! So if all else fails they can sing and play for your entertainment.

Halloween Games and Activities

All parties need games and activities, and possibly the best ones are on Halloween

Jack O’Lantern. Carve out the pumpkins to make them look as scary as possible.  It takes a little time to do but they look great once they have a candle burning away inside them.  Once they are carved out, maybe a competition for the scariest one. A good way to

decide is that everybody gets to vote for one, and they are not allowed to vote for their own even if they like it the best.

Put the Wart on the Jack O’lantern – Using a suitable object, ideally one that will push into the pumpkin or will stick to it, the first spooky character is blindfolded and span around three times. They then have to try and put the wart on the nose of the Jack O’lantern. The closest wins.

Bobbing for Apples - Put apples and water into a large bucket or bowel, and then using mouths only, see if you can pull one out. The winner is the one with the most apples. To make this more scary, why not put in tomato sauce to turn the water…Blood red…

Halloween Hunt - Like an Easter egg hunt the Halloween hunt has prizes hidden around the house and garden, with clues pointing to where they are. If you want to be spooky, you may find a ghoul or too dressed up as your mum or dad ready to scare you.

Remember, you are a scary too so don’t be too afraid.

Scary Stuck in the Mud – A player is chosen to be the ‘Spooky Catcher’, and everyone runs away. Once the ‘Spooky Catcher’, catches someone they have to stand still with their legs apart. They are stuck in the scary mud until someone crawls through their legs. Once this happens they are free to run around. If they are caught three times by the ‘Spooky Catcher’, they become a ‘Fiendish Spooky Catcher Helper’, and have to catch the other players too. mu ha ha!

Scary Statues of Dracula’s Castle! - Music is played and everyone dances. When the music is switched off everyone has to stop.  The last person to stop dancing or moves when the music is off is out of the game. The last person left wins.

Pass the Frightening Parcel - A prize is wrapped in many layers of scary wrapping paper with scary decorations over it. All the players sit in a circle and pass the parcel while the music is playing. When it is switched off the person with the parcel unwraps the first layer of wrapping paper. The music starts again and the parcel is passed around again until the music stops and more layers of wrapping paper are removed.  The winner is the player that unwraps the last layer of paper to be left with the Frightening Prize. muhaha muhaha

Haunting Blind Man’s Buff of Bluff! – This game should be played in a room that has no dangerous objects in it, or a wide open space. A person is chosen to be ‘it’, and they are blindfolded and spun around three times. The rest of the players scatter. ‘It’, moves around the room until they find a person in which case after feeling their face they try and guess who it is. If they do that person becomes ‘it’. If they guess incorrectly the game begins again with the same person as ‘it’.

Ghost Stories

Ghost stories were designed to be told at Halloween. You can have a competition among your friends or simply sit around and listen to mum or dad read aloud to you. Will you be afraid?

Fun

Halloween Parties should be fun and that means nobody gets upset. Remember this when playing the games.

Happy Halloween from everyone at Playgameshavefun!

Halloween costumes, decorations and music an be bought here. For USA and Canada, please click here

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As Halloween draws near children, it is time for you to venture into the world and do thy’s bidding.  You must knock on the doors of your neighbors houses and ask for treats.  If they do not give you treats, you must carry out tricks.  If you do not carry out tricks, I will work my magic and you will be sorry when I turn you into a teacher or your least favourite Uncle!!!

As I am a generous witch, children, I have some fiendish ideas for tricks should you need some this Halloween.  Ha ha ha cackle cackle!

Spooky Note!

If your neighbours do not give you a treat, then write them a spooky note and post it through their door.  Here are some you can use or perhaps you can use your halloween magic and create one of your own. Ha ha cackle cackle!

“When you read this note, you will feel a funny feeling in your throat, and if you blink your eye, you will take your last sigh!”

“Pumpkins, pomegranates, and tomato soup, as their are no treats you will be covered in soup!”

“A witches cat will sneeze today, and as you gave us no sweets it is coming your way!”

“The hounds are approaching so you better run and hide, the hounds are approaching and they are coming for your hyde!”

“Ha ha cackle cackle! Soon you will be locked in a witches shackle ha ha cackle cackle!” That’s my favourite children.

Sweet Wrappers!

If there are no sweets children, then remind your neighbour that you want one next time by leaving your favourite sweet wrapper on their porch or doorstep! Ha ha Cackle Cackle!

Sing the Spooky Song!

Chant this song children if no sweets turn up. In fact sing it anyway! Ha Ha Cackle Cackle!

“Tonight is the night for ghosts and ghouls

Goblins and Vampires the ones you fear the most!

They come with the werewolves,

They come with teeth

They come to seek out the one

without sweets!

So next year, make sure you have plenty

Make sure you have lots for the many

Halloween children that like to eat

Lots of things that are called sweets!”

Always Remember

To do what your parents or carer tells you to do on Halloween children, and remember that the Playgameshavefun Witch is watching you.  Ha Ha Ha Cackle Cackle.

If you need costumes or face paint, please visit the playgameshavefun store, as it has a dedicated section for Halloween. If you are from the USA or Canada, please click here for the store.

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Water fights are brilliant! The only downside is that they can get out of hand and lead to arguments, and they can become a bit boring after a while when the novelty wares off.

Wet people too, make a mess when they come back into the house. This can be negotiated by a good use of towels and a possible outside drying off-changing area, such as a garage.

To keep a water fight alive, here are a few ideas / rules to make a water fight more fun.

The Duel

This is ideal for two players with similar high powered water pistols. Two people stand back to back and walk twelve paces, away from each other. Once they have taken their paces, one of them counts to three. On the count of three, both players spin round and unleash their weapon’s payload at the other. The winner is the one that is covered with the least amount of water. If their are three people one can act as a judge and count to three at the beginning of the duel.   In fact a duel can be played by three players, by either playing a winner stays on scenario, or all players walk away in a triangle shape, and then everybody shoots at each other.  This can become messy.

Should twelve paces prove difficult for your weapons, then try six or even three.

Water Tag!

Just like normal Tag, where someone is “it” until they tag someone else, the game is the same just people are tagged by being squirted rather than tagged.  The last person to be squirted, is “it”!

Total Anarchy!

The traditional water fight where everyone goes a little crazy and makes everyone as wet as possible. Great stuff!

Try including areas which are safe where people can’t be squirted.  To make it really interesting, why not incorporate a time limit as to how long a person can stay in this area.
Try playing in teams.

Choose your weapon!

The best water pistols are ones that shoot a powerful blast of water, and can hold a lot of water so reloading is kept to a minimum.  Some water pistols have tanks which strap over your back, so you can hold more water.

Remember the following:

Animals should not be targeted.   This may scare the animal and that is not a nice thing to do.

Never have a water fight inside the house.

Washing is not to get wet.

Never use delicate objects in a water fight, such as anything made from glass.

Only ever squirt water

Never hurt anyone during the water fight

Try and avoid roads when having a water fight,  and never shoot a water pistol at a moving car

If you are playing at a friends house, it maybe a good idea to take a change of clothes and a towel with you

The world’s biggest water fight!

The world’s biggest water fight is in Thailand, which is used to celebrate new year.  It is not unknown for elephants

to get involved.  Could you win a water fight with an elephant?

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Mother’s Day,  is only a few days away, and it is always nice to buy your mum a card on this day.  In fact, it is nicer if you make your mum a card for this day. Mum’s tend to like pretty cards, rather than pictures of your favorite toy even though it maybe pretty, or a picture of a great warrior. What
ever you decide to make or draw, it is always good to make the card colourful.

Our mums are always there to look after us. They make our meals, see that we have enough clothes, play with us, and make sure we are clean! So on this day maybe it would be a good idea to something nice for them. Maybe make them a nice drink or a meal. Get Dad to help if you can. I dare say she looks after him too.

In the UK, (England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales), Mother’s Day is the fourth Sunday in Lent. This year, it falls on March 14th, so don’t worry there is still time to make something nice for Mum.

Ideas to do something nice for Mum.

You could make Mum a nice drink or meal.

You could do something that Mum normally does, like hoovering.

You could bring Mum something nice to read or eat in bed.

Let Mum have a long time in bed.

Draw Mum a nice picture.

Buy or pick some flowers for Mum (If you pick flowers make sure you are allowed to!)

Let Mum watch her favorite film on TV.

Different countries celebrate Mother’s Day at different times. In the United States of America, Mother’s Day is a national holiday. This means that nobody goes to work unless Mother’s Day a national holiday, and that Mother’s Day should be spelt with an apostrophe between the ‘r’ and the ‘s’. In grammar this is called a singular possessive, and means that something belongs to someone. So David’s toys means that the toys belongs to David. Mother’s Day means the day belongs to Mum.

The Roman’s celebrated Mother’s Day too.

The Roman Empire also celebrated Mother’s Day. They held a festival called Matronalia, which was in honour motherhood, women in general, and of the Roman goddess Juno, who was the Goddess of childbirth, and patron goddess of Rome. It is believed that mums received presents of some kind on this day.

Mother’s Day is celebrated all over the world and at different times. This tells us how important our mums are to all of us!

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Traditionally, an Easter egg hunt consists of a child searching around the house for  their chocolate eggs.  This is a lot of fun and is a nice way to start Easter day.  There are ways however, to make it more fun and to keep it alive if your children are a little older.

Easter Egg Hunt Clues

Instead of just randomly placing the eggs around the house, why not leave a clue to where the next egg is hidden?  So if the next egg is hidden by the television, why not say the next egg is near the device where you watch your favorite programme.  How hard or cryptic you make the clues is up to you, the key thing is to make the Easter egg hunt fun!  Don’t make them too hard, and give plenty of encouragement.

Here are some clues to get you started.

The next egg is where your toys are kept…

There might be an egg where bread goes in and toast comes out…

An egg could be where you have breakfast…

There could be an egg where use a mouse…

An egg could be opposite the stairs…

Have you looked near the flowers?  Some might be buried in the garden…

An egg could be by the plant by the window…

When creating a clue, it is sometimes nice to draw a small picture such as an egg, or Easter Bunny’s paw print.  Try and get the clues to flow.

Easter Egg Hunt – Google

If your children are at a point where the clues are solved to easily and seems to be a little dull, try this.

Instead of leaving clues to specific objects, leave the name of an inventor which has to be Googled.  The object the inventor invented, is where the next egg is hidden.  So for example John Logi Baired invented the television, so your children find his name as a clue, they Google it, and then find the next egg hidden by the television.  Amazing.

As finding the inventors of objects can be difficult, here are a few to get you started.

John Logi Baired – Television.

Alexander Graham Bell – Telephone.

Percy Spencer – Microwave Oven.

Sir John Harrington – Flushing Toilet.

Charles Babbage – Computer( Not strictly true as there were many inventions that led to computing as we know it today, Mr Babbage’s Difference Engine was arguably one of the first computers to be invented.  The point is that if you type his name into Google, he is deeply associated with computing.)

George Nissen – Trampoline

Easter Egg Hunt – Pirate Map.

‘X’ mark’s the spot for this one.  You draw a map of the house and if you are feeling ambitious and if you have one, the  garden too.  You mark ‘X’s where the eggs are hidden.  If you are happy to dig up bits of your garden, then you can bury the eggs in the ground.  We would advise that you put the eggs in a plastic container, rather than just in their wrappings.  It has been known that creatures other than humans have enjoyed a good egg.

When creating the map, draw areas of the house as reference points on the map.  So the stairs can be cliffs and a rug could be the sea.  A table makes a good island and so on.  This can be great fun if your children are at the age where they love pirates, and love dressing up.  Every time they find some ‘treasure’, make them say ‘agrhhhhhhhhhhhh’, in  a pirate voice.  Great fun!

If you have any ideas for an Easter Egg Hunt and want to share them, please feel free.

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It can be a little difficult finding things to do with the kids.  Demands on your time I’m betting are pretty extreme, and you can often find yourself with a bored child or two, and just to make things worse, you have a million and one things to do and be thinking about as well.

Let us help.

Why not make a paper airplane or aeroplane, depending on your part of the world.

Click here to learn how to make a paper airplane!

A child’s imagination can be stunning.  All you need is a cardboard tube and you have a sword.  Do not believe me?  Click here for some good ideas of what to do with cardboard tubes!

These are just a few things you can do at playgameshavefun.com…

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Cardboard tubes can come from toilet rolls, kitchen rolls and best of all, wrapping paper!
Before mum or dad can throw them away, ask if you can play with them.

They can be telescopes…

They can be batons for a marching band…

They can be pirate swords…

If you had two tubes, they could be binoculars…

 Imagine…

You are on a ship and you are looking for land, can you see it in your telescope?
Before we had travelled to all the places in the world, brave explorers such as James Cook, would constantly be on the look out for land while sailing in rough and dangerous seas…

Imagine you are leading a marching band.  There are trombones, drums, symbols and trumpets.  The crowd that line the street are all staring at you as you are the star.  You are throwing the baton into the air in time with the music.  Can you catch it?

Cardboard tubes can be anything you want them to be.  Maybe you can get more than one and make something with them.  Why not tell us what you have?

Pictures courtsey of…

photo credit: JSmith Portfolio

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Paper aeroplanes are really gliders that glide on air.  There shape is aerodynamic, which means it allows air to pass around it easily.  The more air that can pass around your shape, the faster your shape will travel.

Did you know that in some countries, aeroplane is spelt airplane?

Paper areoplanes are easy to build and easy to fly!  Here is a famous model:

The Bulldog Dart.

How to make the Bulldog Dart

Take a piece of A4 paper and fold it in half length ways

Unfold the piece of paper, and you will see you have a fold, like a line right down the middle.  Taking one of the top corners, and fold it so that it meets the fold in the middle.  This should make a triangle shape.

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Once this is done, do the same with the other side so that it looks like the picture below.  As you can see, it looks like a house.

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Turn the piece of paper over, so that you can’t see the flaps.

Carefully fold the piece of paper from the top and the right hand edge so that it meets in the middle.  It should look like this.

Do the same for the left.

Now, fold the point at the top, so that it touches the paper, not too much, about halfway between where the paper meets.  See below

Fold the plane in half length ways, and then rotate it so that it is on its side

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Take care when doing this next part as it is very easy to make a mistake.  Take the top of the wing, and fold it in half so that it meets the bottom corner.  Make sure you smooth out any creases, and you keep a careful eye on where it is folding at the front of the plane.

Turn the plane over, and do the same for the next wing.

Now straighten the wings, and your Bulldog dart is ready for a test flight.  How does it fly?

How far can you fly your plane?

Have you tried to fly it from the top of the stairs?

Were these instructions easy to follow?  How can they be improved?

Watch the video of how to make The Bulldog dart.

Why not make The Harrier paper aeroplane? See which one is best.

All feedback welcome, please leave a comment.

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