How to plan a great event!

Honestly~I think this event was amazing again.
100 people from 3 up to grandmas.
Everyone having so much fun for over 3 hours.  Marvelous! 

The fact that I lost my voice -yes completely!- is not due to behavior issues.  No!  I was so unlucky to catch a cold 2 days before the big day, and though I recovered physically, my throat was still fighting.  So, instructing the event gave me the rest.

A few things, I'd recommend every teacher planning a big event like this:
1.  plan your lessons, so that you have the week AFTER the even off!
Thanks god, I did.  So I slept and was silent, and today for the first time since 4 days there is something like a "sound", if I try to speak.

It was also good to be off, because editing the video, putting up the blog, and of course, cleaning all the decoration away really needed these days.

2.  For the event itself:  Plan few activities!  
The more you plan, the more you have to explain or reorganize, meaning the more you have to use your voice.   Also, the kids really love to dwell with one activity, take photos and enjoy!

I had planned one activity too much AGAIN.  I do this every year!
Besides of Trick or Treat we had:
1.Hula Hoop Race  (Ice breaker )
2.GE BINGO~Part 1:  create your own Bingo sheet (10 minutes or so)
3.GE BINGO~Part 2:  doing the actual Bingo, by, playing "pass the    pumpkin"
and in combination with this, was also a Trick or Treat in the pumpkin for the kid who held it when the music stopped.

And, all the kids who got a BINGO, went to play a Corinto game (You can see all in the video), to get their prices, and not being bored while the other kids are still playing.

4. "Monster GO", I invented it after "Pokemon GO"~the oldest kids hid some little GE monster stickers (witch, skeleton, Frankenstein etc) and the other kids had to run around the room, find out who the older kids were, in first place, search the item and then say "Look there's a ...May I have a sticker?"  (the 3, 4 year olds just say "Vampire" or "Look a vampire" or sth.
They had a beautiful GE Haunted House card to stick them on and collect.

5.  I wanted to play a "Pass the pumpkin over your head" relay game, but this one we had no time for at all and skipped.

6. Mummy game!

3. Don't put too much "English education" in there!

Explaining everything in English would make it all messy with this number and age range.  No way.  A few games with easy very very easy English, all members can do easily!

Especially the mummy game!  We have played this for the last 5 years now.  And I tried different styles.  I always tried to add some "English" in there: e.g., they had to answer a question first and then they were allowed to wrap their mummy for a certain amount of time.

But this takes so much time, and the focus becomes so vague:  Hey are we supposed to work or have fun?!  

So, this year I decided to just go for FUN!  Everyone was allowed to take as many rolls of toilet paper they needed, different colors.  They were allowed to pair up with 2 or 3 or 4 people and could choose on the spot.
The moms could mingle in, if they wanted.

Oh, we had a blast.  

4.  Ask certain moms to help cleaning and tell them exactly what to do.

I wrote on the boxes what to stuff in:  cloth that can be washed.
plastic sheets.  garbage.  stationary.  
You see in the video we had pretty a bit of deco, but the room was proper when I came back from Trick or Treating after 30 minutes.  And apparently it had taken them only 15 minutes to clean up.

5.  Tell the kids in advance not to play with their prices or eat candies during the event.

It may sound boring, but if they play with the stuff, there are going to be mountains of things they forget to take home, and afterwards you will have trouble to figure out what belongs to whom.

Would be nice to hear your ideas for events like this.  And if you have any more questions, please get in touch.


​Make sure to watch the video, and there are more photos on the Japanese blog.