Enchanted forest: Halloween scenario ideas
To celebrate Halloween with children, you can follow this scenario which is called "Enchanted forest". It involves different "magic" characters that come and give children different tasks to keep them busy before the final Halloween treat.
Creating the ambiance
According to this scenario, a spacious room will suit. For the room to resemble an enchanted forest it can be decorated with branches. You can hang a black tissue in the corner and draw a spider's web with the help of a chalk and attach a big spider to it. Bats that hang down from the ceiling will be very spectacular. You can make those origami-like from black paper. You can apply as much fantasy to it as you wish. In another corner, stick an inscription saying "Forest kitchen". You can place there pots, kettles and bowls to give the idea. In another corner still, make an inscription "Destroyed church", and in another corner still hang one saying "Plant for destruction of light". Somewhere else you need to hang an inscription "Dracula's castle" and decorate this place in a corresponding way.
For example, you can place on the wall carved from cardboard towers of a castle. You can place pictures of some creatures that would guard this "castle" on both sides.
How to make origami bats
Material: black paper (squares cut in 20*20cm), scissors, shining in the dark paints.
Time: about 1 hour.
Instructions: Fold the squares to make them triangular. Make a fold of the upper part of the triangular by turning it down (5 cm). Make folds by the sides alongside the line. Then make some space alongside the folds to make wings. To make ears, use scissors to cut in between the wings. Turn around the bat and draw eyes with the help of the shining paint.To add some volume, make a fold in the body vertically in the middle.
The action
Children come inside and sit in a circle. Mystical music plays (for example, The girl with the plums from the movie The perfume - the story of a murderer). The first inhabitant of the enchanted forest comes in wrapped in a sheet.
The inhabitant: - Dear kids, you are now in an enchanted forest, full of mystery and fears. To get out of here safe and alive, you need to go through certain trials. First of all, guess who I am. I will give you a hint. My potion boils in a huge cauldron. I fly in the sky with my broom. I can turn you into beasts or toothless grannies.
Children say that it's a witch, so she drops down the sheet covering her. After that, the witch makes children play the parcel game. The parcel is a candy or any kind of treat wrapped in numerous layers of wrapping paper. The essence of the game is to pass the parcel from one player to another, while the music is playing. After that, the music stops for a while. During this time, the person holding the parcel unwraps one layer. Then the music starts again, and the parcel is passed again from one player to another till, unwrapped at pauses, the treat gets finally fully unwrapped, and the person who takes off the last layer is the winner. Then the witch leaves the room.
A new character enters the room wrapped in a sheet also. Now the children have to guess again who that is. The character says:
I live in a deep-deep sea, and I have a grief deep in me:
I would love to live with people but I cannot walk on the firm earth
I love to collect seashells and fish are my friends...
When the sheet falls down, the children see a mermaid. The mermaid has prepared a surprise for them. First, they have to divide in two teams. Two transparent buckets are placed on a table or on the floor with plastic fish inside them. The mermaid asks the children to save her friends because there is no water in the buckets and, they can die. So, the children have to bring water in scoops. It looks like a funny contest. The team that gets more water in two minutes wins, and every participant gets a prize. The mermaid only has to thank the children and go back to the sea.
The third character appears with his riddle:
You cannot see me at all,
I live under the table though,
From all kinds of misadventures I do guard your home.
The answer is "goblin". Then the goblin tells his story. Unfortunately, his house was destroyed while the owners moved to a new place, but he got lost and has nowhere to live now. He asks the children to build him a new house. To do so, the children have to divide in two teams. Every team gets a big sheet of paper and markers.
During several minutes the teams must draw a house. Taking turns, each player tries to draw a part of a house with the eyes tied, and the rest of the team has the right to help him by guiding him. The prize is given to the team that has drawn the house that the goblin likes most.
The next character comes and gives his riddle:
I have corns, hooves and a tail, but I'm not a cow. I have a snout, but I'm not a pig. I'm a dark force. You'd better steer clear of me, for I'm evil!
As you may have guessed, it's a devil. The devil gives the children the task to show bad behaviour. The children must show a hooligan, a capricious one, a lazy bones, a bully, a bigmouth, a screamer.
Devil: I have had fun, kids! But I hope you never behave this way!
Meanwhile, the light flashes, and there is some noise. Dracula appears in his black cloak, fangly. The devil bows and disappears.
Have you ever been to a Haloween party?
Dracula: What nice children you are! So, who wants to visit my castle in the middle of the forest?
Dracula chooses two children and takes them with him. When he leaves, a scroll falls down from under his cloak. The devil comes in again.
Devil: Kids, I have seen everything. Count Dracula took your friends to his castle. They have to be saved! But I don't know how to do this. Do you know?
Children start suggesting their ideas. Then the devil has an idea.
Devil: Look! What is there? It's a scroll! What does it say? "If Dracula or other vampires have stolen your friends, there are three things to do to save them: garlic, bright light and the crucifix. You can find them in the enchanted forest. Look around very attentively. Try to find what you need. When you find all that you need, please come to the castle of Dracula, shake the garlic, give some light in his eye, and show him the crucifix. The Dracula will run away then, and you will save your friends. Good luck to you, kids!"
The garlic can be found in the forest kitchen, the crucifix in the destroyed church, and the lights on the plant of destruction of light. Then the friends can be saved.
Dracula: I give up!
Dracula runs away, and a kind fairy appears.
Kind fairy: Children, you have done all the tasks, you have saved your friends from the claws of Dracula, and now you managed to go out of the enchanted forest. Now the treat is waiting for you!
The children can go to the next room where there is a table with treats for them and music to dance.