A school carnival is a really fun day that parents and kids look forward to every year. It is a great time for the children to enjoy playing games and the parents can visit with other families. A school carnival can also be a school fundraiser, helping to bring in funds for your school.
A great idea is for each grade to have its own booth. Some school carnivals even break this down by classes. So the kids in Mrs. Johnson’s class have their very own booth! Parents volunteer just 30 minutes to an hour to man the booth. Junior high and high school students can work booths themselves (with supervision).
A few traditional games to play at the carnival include: bowling, hula hoop contest, bean bag toss, basketball shooting contest, pin the tail on the donkey (or other animal) and a pie eating contest. Each of these games is fairly simple to set up.
You can find many children’ bowling games in larger student supply catalogs. A hula hoop contest would have children hula-ing to some fun music and the ones who can hula to the whole song win a prize. A bean bag toss could be run the same way the hula hoop contest is, play a song and the children that can keep the bean bag tossed for the whole song win a prize.
A basketball shooting contest can be fun, have students shoot a basket from different distances (Ask the gym teacher for help setting appropriate distances) and the children that get the basket in win a prize. Pin the tail on the donkey will appeal to lots of children, as this is a traditional birthday party game and it is fun to be blindfolded and spun around and around.
Another fun activity is the guessing game. A guess the number of jelly beans in the jar game will appeal to everyone young and old. A great tip is to select a funny shaped jar, something unique looking and transparent so everyone can see the jelly beans and count them.
If your carnival is more involved and you have a larger budget, you could consider getting a dunking booth. Students would very likely pay to dunk someone – a favorite teacher or even the principal! This would be a very popular booth. A bouncy castle or other inflatable that the children can hop on is also a popular favorite that you can rent just for the day.
Your carnival is likely to be attended by the entire school. A great idea is to get members of the student body involved in planning the carnival so you have a strong idea of what students and parents would like to do and participate in at the carnival. Chances are your carnival is going to be a very popular school event!
About the Author: Jennifer Lawton searches for fun and creative fundraisers that parents, teachers and students will enjoy. She is a frequent writer for superfundraiser.com a site that provides customized fundraising programs for schools, sports teams and other youth groups.
Great ideas, thanks! VolunteerSpot has a free and easy scheduler making it a snap to get all the parents and older kids signed-up to volunteer for your carnival. They also have a free ebook filled with creative and fun carnival ideas - everything from booths, games, entertainment, to event planning and volunteer management. Please check out VolunteerSpot when you are planning your upcoming carnival.
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Article added to SearchWarp.com on 9/29/2007 9:33:24 PM. View other articles written byJennifer Lawton(1,964)
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