Halloween is my absolute favorite holiday. EVER. I don’t know what it is about the whole thing, but I can’t stop buying every creepy, crawly Halloween decoration I lay my eyes on—from eyeballs, to rats, to bloody candy fingers—I love it all!
I have a fond, yet foggy memory of my mom setting up a Halloween “touch and feel” table at our house for the holiday when I was a kid.
I can’t remember too much about it, other than touching some spaghetti in a bowl with a blindfold, but I remember thinking it was the most hilariously gross thing ever.
For kids, getting to touch slimy, wiggly, gooey stuff makes them squeal with excitement! So, I wanted to recreate this same fun with my kids many years later with my own “Touch and Feel” table, and here’s just how I did it!
To make a creepy touch and feel table of your very own you will need the following supplies:
Black plastic cauldrons (one for each body part, I had eight)
Cheese cloth (to cover the tops of the cauldrons so pesky kids can’t peek!)
Rubber bands (to secure the cheese cloth around the top of the cauldrons)
Body part identification signs – I designed and made my own on my printer, but you can easily write them with a sharpie on some tent-style place cards. I also added little pictures of the real body part for the little kids who can’t yet read the titles.
Creepy, crawly accents – I decorated my table with some plastic bugs, spiders, eyeballs and vials of centipedes, roaches and worms to take the gross factor up a notch!
Food to Use in Your Halloween Touch and Feel Table
Fake body parts (to go inside your cauldrons) – There are many different versions of what you can use, but I used the following items:
Bones = raw hide dog bones
Brain = boiled green head of cauliflower
Heart = boiled heirloom tomato with skin removed
Intestines = cooked spaghetti or pappardelle pasta
Eyeballs = red grapes
Toes = cocktail sausages
Teeth = unpopped corn kernels
Fingernails = sliced almonds
I also made this funny little sign to sit on the table, which made it look like our touch and feel table was part of a scientific laboratory gone wrong!
I used some rubber frogs, some olive oil and put them into an apothecary jar. I must admit, they looked pretty real!
I used test tube vials and put water and rubber bugs inside and also displayed them on the table.
Brains! Boiled green cauliflower. I was also thinking you could soak it in some red food coloring as well to give it a blood-tinged effect.
Intestines! Cooked spaghetti in all its glory.
Toes! Tiny cocktail sausages in their slime.
Bones! Rawhide dog bones feel really real!
Heart! A boiled heirloom tomato with the skin removed—yuck! But oh my, does it feel real!
Eyeballs! Red, squishy grapes feel just like eyeballs!
Best of luck in creating an awesomely gross Halloween Touch and Feel table of your own! I know your kids will have a blast! Happy Halloween!
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Comments
Raquel Ryckman
My mom did this activity for us as children back in the 70’s and we went absolutely crazy with excitement. Fast forward to my own kids in 2008’s, it was still a huge hit. I once did it at my kid’s birthday party in October and it again was a blast. Today in 2021, I am taking it to my before school kids to see what they think. It’s a post Halloween surprise that they are insisting on trying.
I love all your ideas and photos. Your effort is amazing and what a beautiful display for the event!
I am using things on hand in my cabinet and a few more ideas in addition to your fabulous ideas are: bat droppings=ground black pepper or coffee, witches throw up=cooked oatmeal, carbonated drink=witches brew, baby monster fingernail clippings=dried rice, big monster carved out eyeball=boiled egg, spider eggs about to hatch=canned peas or frozen unthawed peas, witches googly gook spell maker=yogurt
Eric
For the children’s sake don’t use black pepper for A touch and feel – a. The sneezing will never end and b. I imagine after they rub there face particularly eyes that it’s going to be game over