There are no more than 40 days left till Halloween but you hardly have a minute to think about all the productions, decorations and costumes for children as well as trying to organise your own Halloween party. We thought you might want some ideas of activities to ease you into the festive day with a minimum of work and fantastic results.

Halloween Wrapping Paper and Treat Bag

Making Halloween wrapping paper using your school art package couldn't be easier. You will need: some examples of different types of paper to show the children and images from the internet to use (optional).

All you need to do is to design your pattern or picture and then use the titling tool (Fresco, Colour Magic) and tile it (Dazzle, Dazzle Plus, Dazzle 03 Granada Colours, Revelation Natural Art). For younger pupils or those with special needs you can restrict the number of tools and the palette available, or use stamps. For pupils who cannot use the select area tool you can make cardboard frames and move them around the screen to allow them to select an area. You can do this using an image of a pumpkin which was then tiled and flipped or you can make a treat bag using a net made from a bought bag. For a pumpkin treat bag you will need: Green tempera paint, Orange tempera paint, Sponge, Lunch bag, soap and water. All you have to do is apply orange paint to the palm of a hand with a sponge, press palm onto the paper bag and using your index finger and green paint, make stem and leaves on the pumpkins.

Make a Halloween Card or Table Cloth

Why not design a Halloween card to send to parents or friends using a pumpkin or a witch image as your inspiration? You need to find images of pumpkins, witches or ghosts. Teach your children to look at the pictures and notice the colours and shapes involved. Using the spray brush in the art package and lines of colour, create the effect you want. Talk about the intensity and mix of colours. Add a wash and ask if they think the effect is better. Show them that they can 'undo' an effect to take it back to the original. Add black shapes from the toolbar to simulate the ghosts. When they are happy about the effect add stars to make a star lighted decoration.

You can also make a Halloween table cloth using: White paper table cloth, Stickers, Colored Markers and Halloween pictures. The instructions are: Take an orange paper tablecloth and draw various Halloween ghosts on it. You can also draw goblins, pumpkins, black cats, etc. Then, stick on Halloween stickers and glue on any pictures that you think are related to Halloween.