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Halloween Pumpkins

Family Halloween Party Program

As a substitute for Salt Lake County Library, I had the fortunate opportunity from one of my librarian friends to help plan, prepare for, and present a Family Halloween Program! Below are the details about my role in the event, as well as a few of my takeaways from my observations and experiences helping with this great program.

Planning

  • Obstacle Course

    • I helped plan the obstacle course for kids to do as part of the games.

    • Possibility of inside or outside, depending on weather. If the weather was nice I would be doing the course on the grass or by the cement, inside would be on carpet.

  • Materials:

    • 6 construction cones

    • 3 hula hoops

    • A collection of lawn signs (from shark week)

    • 1 large fabric tube.

Preparing

  • Decoration

    • For an earlier activity I made Halloween lanterns out of jars that would have tea lights in them. I decorated them with felt and fabric. These were reused as decoration in the main party area (meeting room).

  • Obstacle Course

    • I decorated the cones to look like candy corn by tying white, orange, and yellow fabric around them.

    • The hula hoops became spider webs by stringing yarn across them, leaving a hole for kids to step in and avoid touching the “web” (tire style).

    • I intended to paint the lawn signs to look like ghosts, giving the kids a reason to stay on the path to avoid being “caught” by the ghosts. I initially was going to paint the biggest sign to be a door as the finishing point -- get to the door for trick or treating.

    • I did not end up having time to paint the signs, and ended up eliminating them due to weather anyway.

    • My plan was to have the kids go through the tube, around the cones, and hop in every hula hoop. The course ended up being a couple of cones to run around, hopping in the hula hoops, and then going through the tube and reaching the cone on the other side.

  • Set Up

    • The weather ended up being cold and rainy, so we opted for inside. There was limited space in the kids area where I was setting up, and had to also share the space with other games.

    • The day of, I helped prepare for the event by setting up tables and food for staff and patrons, and getting the obstacle course and other games set up.

    • I dressed up a little bit like a pirate, accounting for move-ability and potential weather.

  • Games

    • I was over the games, along with two teen volunteers.

    • I mostly set things up, with the course along one side, and games around the rest of the perimeter of the area. There was a pirate hook hoop toss, a shark beanbag toss, two regular cornhole tosses, and inflatable giant bowling.

Executing

  • Games and Obstacle Course

    • The obstacle course ended up being difficult for people to understand at first and it was more just something to play with (the tube was very popular). It was hard to explain the course and manage the other games and prizes at the same time.

    • I would have liked more candy/prizes to give out, as there were pretty much just bookmarks by the end (which aren’t quite as fun as crayons and toy bugs).

  • Teen Help

    • I ended up getting less help from the teens than I anticipated, initially. I had kids at multiple games at once and was in charge of handing out prizes to each.

    • By the end the teens were pretty exclusively taking care of the obstacle course and encouraging kids to race and such. It got a little bit rowdy but they all seemed to be having fun. It made it so I could focus more on the other games.

Clean Up

  • Efficiency

    • Cleaning up went smoothly and quickly.

    • Everyone pitched in and we were done faster than expected. My area cleaned up well, though some of the beanbags got lost temporarily among the moved furniture.

Final Thoughts

  • More prizes would have been nice.

  • Having teen volunteers is somewhat hit or miss as they could be helpful or they could make one more responsibility for yourself, but ultimately it is for their benefit as much as for your own.

  • The inflatable giant bowling was too hard to maintain along with the other games (hard to keep kids from abusing the pins and ball).

  • Having a staff dinner beforehand was VALUABLE. I appreciated being fed and getting some time to network with the other staff members working the event. I would have liked to get some of the snacks we gave to patrons though (they looked so delicious). I wouldn’t have thought to do dinner for staff but I would definitely recommend it for future event planning.

    • The staff dinner was as simple as a few pizzas, a salad, some lemonade, fruit, and garlic bread. We had a little bit of time before the event to hang out and eat which helped build community among the staff working the event.

  • I also would have liked to see more of the rest of the event beyond my own section even so I could tell people to check out the other things (I wasn’t completely sure what all else there was or where).

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