On
October 31st we held Mark's English School's 3rd annual Halloween Party.
We had 51 children participate and 45 adults in attendance. Even though
there were a lot of people, the place was big enough and the party went very
smoothly. With the help of my high school students, decorated the hall the
night before. Here are a few pictures of the stage set up for the party.
We had almost one hundred people present and around 60 people in costume (including about 10 adults.) All the costumes were wonderful and I was very impressed and happy that so many people went through the trouble. Having so many people in costumes really made it a spectacular Halloween Party. I tried to take pictures of everyone's costume. Here are all the pictures I got.
Many people were taking pictures and I'm sure you got some good ones. I'd like to create a students' pictures page. If you have pictures you'd like me to post please e-mail them to me and I'll post them here.
The party started with a group game called Ring the Spider. The children all lined up and started with a wheel barrel race to the stage. There they threw the ring they were given and the first team to ring the spider on the stage was the winner. We held 3 races, an elementary school student race and two preschool races. The kids all tried really hard and it's unfortunate but there can only be one winner. As a consolation prize all participants were given special Halloween stickers for their effort. The winners got special Halloween candy boxes. Here are some pictures from the races and a picture of the winners on the right.
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The next event was Bobbing for Apples. Bobbing for Apples is the traditional Halloween party game. The participants have to get an apple floating in water without using their hands. Here are a few pictures of some of the participants and some pictures of people enjoying their apple that they worked so hard to get. We had a few people without front teeth giving it their best and winning. I applaud their determination. |  |
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After Bobbing for Apples, we held the Halloween Carnival. The Halloween Carnival consisted of 5 stations;
The Spider Pumpkin Toss, The Monster Bash, Pin the Nose on the Jack O' Lantern
The Jack O' Lantern Contest/Face Painting, and Monster Bingo
| The Spider Pumpkin Toss | I made two big boards as targets for
the kids. One board was black and had spider web shapes cut out
out of it and there were black pockets with spider webs painted on
them. The other board was green with pumpkin shaped holes and
orange pockets. My wife made spider and jack o' lantern bean bags
for the children to throw. The children got 3 chances to throw
either spiders or pumpkins. If they got one in, then they won and
got to choose from one of the prizes.
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| Monster Bash | We
placed 7 different monsters' pictures on stands and the children used
jack o' lantern bean bag my wife made. The children got to throw 3
jack o' lanterns and if they could knock down one of the monsters they
won. We had plastic jack o' lanterns with prizes inside for the
winners.
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the stage we had two large tapestries. I made them with velcro.
There were a variety of velcro noses to choose from. The children
choose one they liked. Then, the children were blindfolded and
spun around an indefinite number of times. The attendant or their
mother faced them toward the jack o' lantern and they did their best to
get the nose in the right place. After, they posed for a picture
with their jack o' lantern. It was a lot harder than they
thought. Here are a few pictures of their attempts.
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Pin the Nose on the Jack O' Lantern |
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| Face
Painting/
Jack O' Lantern Contest |
We
had a crafts table set up for kids or their parents to add to their
costumes using face paints.
At this station kids could also make their own paper jack o' lantern. Once the carnival was over I chose the best one. Then I carved the child's picture into a real pumpkin and made a jack o' lantern. The winner got to take their jack o' lantern home.
There was only one judge (Mark) and jacks were judge mostly based on whether I could actually carve the kid's picture. |
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| Monster Bingo | In
English class I teach the kids some Halloween vocabulary. At the
party we used those words and played Monster Bingo. We had all
kinds of prizes for the winners to choose from; witch fingers, vampire
teeth, pencils, stickers, rings and more.
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After the Halloween Carnival we held the costume contest. There were 4 categories for the contest.
Best Cutest Scariest Adult
All the people in attendance cast their votes and while they were waiting for the results, everyone ate the special Halloween cookies my wife made. There were all kinds of cookies; bats, black cats, ghosts, skulls, jack o' lanterns, fingers, spider webs and new this year severed hands, skeleton hands and brains.
For drinks we had Dragon Essence, Snake Blood and Eyeball Juice
The results of the costume contest were in. The winner were
| left to right: Adult-Andy Scariest-Taichi Cutest-1st-Rin Cutest-2nd-Leina Best-2nd-Masaya Best-1st-Hinako |
here is
a picture of all of them together
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The last event was trick or treat. The children lined up and went around saying trick or treat and got candy. In America children dress up in costumes and go around to neighbors houses on Halloween. The children ring the door bells and when their neighbor comes to the door the children say trick or treat. Then the children get candy or some sort of treat. We told them not to eat their candy all at once and hope they brushed their teeth well. Maybe next year we'll give out tooth brushes. Here are some trick or treat pictures.
We did our best to get everyone together for a group picture, but they didn't fit. So, I have put two pictures together
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Every year I make jack o' lanterns for the party. At the party I place them all around the room, but here is picture of all of them together. There are 8 all together and it took me about 4 hours to make them. At the end of the party I gave them out to the people who wanted them. I'm already excited about carving more for next year. |  |
Many people helped me with the party. I'd like to say thank you to:
Tomoko, Kai, Leina, Mrs. Yoshikawa, Kaoru, Mr. Kitsugi, Andy, Shota, Ayano, Megumi, Sachie
and thanks to all the participants you all made it a great party. I hope to see you all again next year.
- Mark