How about a story. It takes up a little time and this one makes a "Jack-O-Lantern"right in with your theme. The Little Orange House (One of many versions!) A storytelling Activity Needed: Scissors and a large piece of orange paper Once upon a time a very small witch was walking in the woods. The cold wind was blowing the dry leaves all around her. The little witch was frantically searching for a house for the winter. She could not find one. Suddenly a piece of Orange paper, blown by the wind landed at her feet. She picked it up. The little witch looked closely at the paper and then she said, "I shall make myself a little house from this piece of orange paper." She folded the paper in half. Then she took her scissors (she always carried a pair in her pocket) and cut off the two corners to make a roof. (Cut the construction paper as the story indicates).I round these off. "This will do just fine," she said as she looked at her new house. "But I will need a door." With her scissors she cut a door. Since witches always wear pointed hats,she cut a special door. Cut a triangle shape with one end pointed up(near the bottom right of the paper) this is the door/mouth. The little witch walked through the door into the little orange house. It was very dark inside. She quickly hurried back out. "I will need to make a window to let in the light," said the little witch. She cut a window/eyes. (Cut a square shape in the top middle of the paper opposite end of the paper than the door. Cut through both sides of the paper.) Oh, it was a very fine looking house. Her very own little house with a roof, a door, and windows was all finished. But just as the little witch started to go inside for the winter, she saw a tiny ghost floating down the wind swept path. As the tiny ghost came to a stop near the little house, the little witch saw that she was crying. "Why are you crying?" asked the little witch. The tiny ghost stopped crying and answered, "It is cold and windy. It is getting dark. And I have no place to spend the winter." "You may spend the winter with me in my new house," said the kind little witch. "Oh, thank you, " the happy tiny ghost said as she peeked in through the window. "This is a very nice house." "First," said the witch,"I will need to make you a little door of your very own." She took her scissors again and began to cut. She cut a very tiny door. (Cut a half triangle on the folded edge of the paper between the big door and the window. Make the longer part of the triangle point up towards the window) The two happy new friends went inside. The tiny ghost went in the very little door, and the little witch went through her own special door. All winter long they lived happily together inside the little orange house. If you want to see inside their little orange house,just open your piece of paper and Surprise! The kids really love to see that the house is really a jack o' lantern.

Hi Cherry, I think the orange poster board should work. DD & I were using the prettiest Xmas cards so of course they were embossed, really good thick card stock, should have tried it with the thinner cards. Probably worked great 50-60 yrs ago when cards were much thinner & craft came into vogue, imagine it was made in Europe long before we made them. Kids might "suck" on crepe paper & get color on their clothes. Lot of things are getting hard to find. Western TRim Co. out here is now Blue Moon & something else in the more expensive "jewels" . Michael's is more expensive items & less for young set to do except the craft kits & craftfoam. Hope the posterboard works for you! Oh, back when we made them we had to use tacky glue as no hot glue guns, we resorted to staples at top . Now some things have improved, amazing glues & hot gun guns! Jan

I'm usually just a lurker here but I thought I'd let you know that I have some experience with this. Last year was my first Halloween at this job and we do office trick-or-treating here. It's on a volunteer sign-up basis. You can opt-out, donate just candy, donate candy and be a trick-or-treat stop, and you can bring your kids into the office from 3-5pm. Basically our department shuts down between 3 and 5pm. Some people go all out and decorate their cubes and even dress up. The only rule is nothing too scary since there are a lot of very little kids. I signed up to donate candy and be a 'stop'. My kids are older so they won't be coming in. Our department secretary coordinated the volunteers and she had balloons placed in the trick-or-treating cubes so that the kids could see where they could stop for treats. They just had to look up and if there were balloons, they new exactly what to do! I brought in 2 jumbo mixed bags of candy and I stopped at the dollar store and picked up some trinkets - plastic rings, Halloween pencils, stuff like that. I decorated my cube but didn't dress up. The biggest hit was the plastic rings that I grabbed on a whim! Who would have guessed?? It was the best time! So many people were new here last year and didn't participate, and wished they did. I heard that there is close to 70% employee participation this year and we're talking about close to 100 employees - similar to your group! Someone set up a conference room with decorations and crayons and the kids could go there and hang out to sort their candy. Plus the adults took a break from work. I think we also had drinks and paper goods from the cafe in there, but i don't remember exactly. It really was a great time and I can't wait to do it again this year. Our office is doing it this Friday and we are all starting to put up our decorations tomorrow. Good luck!

Last few year we have had only 1-5 kids and we lived in a small town, but at the edge. This year in the assisted living home, they open the doors for about 2 hours and they say the get 100-200 kids. BUT it is he clients choice. If they want to give, they put a picture of a pumpkin on their door, or just sit in the hallway. If you don't want to do anything, just keep the door closed. Today, all the staff dressed up in costumes and the resident s really enjoyed it. It was fun