Make a pumpkin-shaped piñata: Thinly cover a large balloon with papier-mâché, leaving a small circle unwrapped at the top. After it dries, break and remove the balloon. Decorate with orange crepe paper and a pumpkin face. Fill the cavity with wrapped candy.

Activities

• Spider's Web. Club members stand in a circle. Give one club member a ball of string (or yarn). He or she calls the name of someone in the circle and tosses the ball to that person, without letting go of the end of the string. The person who catches the ball calls someone else’s name and tosses it to that person, also while keeping hold of the string. As the ball is tossed around the circle with club members holding the string, the center will look like a spider’s web. Option: Try to unravel the “web” by tossing the ball back the way it came.
• Pumpkin Patch Pitch. Set out four or five plastic pumpkins or paper bags with pumpkin faces. Club members stand behind a line and have three tries each to throw a table tennis ball into one of the pumpkins. Count how many balls the entire group gets in.
• Ornery Apples. From the ceiling, hang one apple for each club member. With hands behind their backs, club members eat the apples.
• Rattlesnake. The group forms a circle, called the watering hole. Choose two players to be rattlesnakes, give each a rattle, and blindfold them. One is chosen to tag the other, who tries to avoid being caught. They locate each other by rattling. When one rattles, the other must immediately respond by rattling. The pursuer, however, may initiate a rattle only five times. Set a time limit for each pair to play. Those forming the watering hole keep the blindfolded players from stepping out and may also change the shape of the watering hole.
• Turkey Feather Relay. Divide into teams. On the wall in front of each team, hang a drawing of a turkey without tail feathers. Place a roll of tape on the floor beneath each turkey. Cut colorful feathers out of construction paper and give each team one feather per person. Players in turn run to their turkey, tape a feather on, and run back to tag the next player. Time how long it takes for all teams to finish feathering the turkeys.
• Great Pumpkin Piñata Hang the piñata from the ceiling. Club members form a circle around it. One at a time, players are blindfolded and spun around. The player then swings a stick at the piñata, trying to break it. Take turns until someone breaks the piñata. Club members then scramble for the candy.

Refreshments

Line up several paper bags, each containing a different fruit, cookie or treat. Each club member, without looking, reaches into three bags to pull out refreshments.

Portions of this special event are adapted from Parties and Special Events,
a Pioneer Clubs resource.