Pumpkin Brains Search

Pumpkin Brains Search – Pumpkin Carving Party Game

Supplies: Large tub or small baby pool, fresh pumpkin seeds and pulp, small Halloween favors – prizes
Note: You can always use the largest pumpkin (or purchase an extra large one) as your container.

Pumpkin Brains Search is a unique, gross and fun activity for kid’s Pumpkin carving parties.

Pumpkin Brains Search Game Prep
1. While the kids are cleaning out the pumpkins so that they can carve them, collect all of the seeds / pulp (pumpkin brains) and place in large tub, small baby pool, or large container.
Note: Do not put the container in sunlight. You want the seeds and pulp to be gooey and sticky for this game.
2. Number of favors / prizes should equal of be more than number of guests. (More is always works than way if extra guests show up you are covered.)
3. Place a variety of Halloween favors / prizes into the the seeds and pump and mix them in. Make sure that all favors or prizes can be washed off or a sealed for this game. If you don’t have favors that can be mixed in then consider get fake spiders or scary items and place a number on them and then have the numbers correspond to a favor/prize.
4. Then take a break during the pumpkin carving. after they have pulled all the seeds and pulp out of the pumpkin, but before they wash their hands. Let the kids know that you are going to play a game. Call the kids over to the Pumpkin Brain Trough. (Tub with seeds and pulps in.)

How to Play Pumpkin Brains Search
1. Have the kids or groups of kids (if the tub is small) gather around the Pumpkin Brains in the tub.
2. Tell them that various prizes and items are hidden in the Pumpkin Brains and they much search through the brains to find them. To add to the difficulty or intrigue of the search turn down the lights or blindfold the kids.
3. When the Party Host says go the kids are told to Search the Pumpkin Brains. Kids then search through the Pumpkin Brains until they find a Halloween trinket and pull it out. Once they do they are done and can watch as everyone continues to search the brains.

Thanks Michelle – Lexington, Ky

Pumpkin Brain Search Variations

Pumpkin Brain Search Relay
1. Set up 2 Tubs for seeds and pumpkin pulp 5, 8 or 10 feet from a starting line. The tubs should be placed beside each other at the same distance from the starting line.
2. Place spiders, eyeballs and mini-skulls or some fun Halloween items in with the Pumpkin Brains. We like the little plastic spiders because they are hard to find in the pumpkin pulps.
3. Divide the group into two equal teams. If odd number, have someone go twice on the smaller team.
If you have a lot of pumpkin carving party guests, you can divide into four teams and play two semi-final rounds and then a final round.
Play
4. The first player from each team must go to the pumpkin brain container and search through the seeds and pulp and find a spider, eye or whatever the item is you added to the brains.
5. Once they find it they pull it out, head back to the starting line, tag the next player so they can go and puts the Halloween item in a bowl.
6. This process continues until the first team to have all their players find a Halloween items and the last player on the team gets back to the starting line and puts the Halloween item in the bowl. That team wins.

FYI – To make the relay really hard use the exact amount of Halloween items as players, hence it gets harder for each person to find the remaining items and really tough for the last person. Want to keep it simple, have more items than players.

Brain Search Find the Most Game
1. Put a mix of 20-30 Halloween items (spiders, skulls, eyes) into the Pumpkin Brains.
2. One at a time each guest takes a turn to search through the Pumpkin Brains to pull out as many items as they can in 20 or 30 seconds.
3. At the end of their turn record how many items they pulled out of the Pumpkin Brains.
4. Have each guest take a turn. record their score. Highest score wins.
If there is a tie then have a a brain search run off and give each player 10 seconds to find as many items and the one with the most wins.

Brain Search Feeley Meeley Style
1. This is good when you have a small group of kids. (2 – 6 players)
2. You’ll need 12-20 different small items. Try to make as many Halloween items as possible (spider, rat, ghost, pumpkin, rat, skull, skeleton, witch, zombie, cauldron) and if you need more random items so you have at least 3 items per player.
3. Take a picture of each item that will be used, place on document and size all the photos the same, print out sheet and cut the pictures into game cards (1 item per card), cards should be the same size.
4. Take the seeds and pumpkin pulp (Pumpkin Brains) and put in large container, mix in Halloween items, place a towel / cloth over the large container so the players can not see the items in the Pumpkin Brains.
5. The first player sits in front of the Pumpkin Brains container and the Host pulls a game card from the pile and shows the image to the player. The player then has 30 seconds to reach under the cloth and find the item on the game card in the Pumpkin Brains and pull it out. (If you do not have a cloth to cover the container consider using a blindfold / sleep mask.)
6. When they think they found the item shown on the game card, they pull it out of the Pumpkin Brains.
a. If it is a match – They get a point and their turn is over and the next player goes.
b. If they pull out an item and it does not match the game card, they put the item back in the Pumpkin Brains and continue searching until time runs out.
7. If a player does not find the item within the 30 seconds, their turn is over and the next player takes their turn trying to find the same item within in Pumpkin Brains. This continues until the item is found.
8. 1 Point is awarded for each item found, the player with the most points once all the items are found is the winner.

Pumpkin Carving parties or gathering help bring families, friends and neighborhoods together, these Pumpkin Brain games give parents and group leaders a fun and gross activities that make use of the seeds and pumpkin pulp. Enjoy, take pictures and share with the #pumpkinbrains.

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