School Carnival Games & Ideas - Fabulously Fun

Fabulously Fun
School Carnival
Ideas
A FREE SignUp eBook
Ideas for how to organize
a carnival for Schools,
Churches and Community
groups
Suggestions for games,
activities, food, and
fundraisers
Tips for making the
carnival fun for all ages!
Inside this eBook:

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Attribution 2.5. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/
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Carnivals are FUN!
Many schools and
congregations hold carnivals
every year because they are
fun, involve the community,
and can be a profitable
fundraiser.
We’ve collected ideas from
carnival veterans to help
you plan your event.
Whether it is your first or 50th,
we hope you will find some
ideas to make your carnival
a fresh success!
SignUp.com the EASIEST way to bring people together!

Carnival Basics
More stuff means more money. Offer a variety of
booths and activities attractive for all ages. Once
you have a theme, let it guide your booth and
entertainment choices.
Good publicity and signage drives attendance.
Start spreading the word 4-6 weeks before your
event. At the carnival, hang brightly colored signs
identifying booths and concessions stands. (Kids
can help make them.) Prominently recognize
sponsors on banners and signs.
Share the work and have more fun!
Create subcommittees with a chair
responsible for key teams. Use
SignUp.com for simple volunteer
scheduling and parent signups!
Ticket Sales
Concessions
Rentals
Sponsorships
Publicity
Booths
Raffle or Auction
Music and Entertainment
Setup/Cleanup
Choose a theme to tie the carnival together.
Your carnival can be planned around any
theme, for example:
The Circus
Beach Party
Future/Outer Space
Hollywood
Mardi Gras
Sports
Fiesta

Once volunteers have
picked a shift, SignUp
sends automated
confirmations and
reminders to help
everyone keep their
commitments.
Save time, Plan your Carnival
Online with SignUp
SignUp’s simple online signup tool makes it
easy to get the help you need.

Where should we hold our
carnival?
You can hold your carnival
anywhere that is safe and has
enough room.
Either indoors or outdoors
Any area that's safe for kids
In a space that is big enough
to fit all your booths and
activities
A backyard
A big garage
A church or school
A playground
Need Permission? Need Permits?
Plan ahead!!
Our school holds a carnival
every year. The kids, teachers,
and parents, all look forward
to it. It’s such a fun way for our
families to spend time
together while raising money.
-- Parent, Campbell, CA

How can we turn our carnival
into a fundraiser?
• Sell Tickets! Offer tickets for sale in the weeks
before the carnival at a discount. This builds
interest in your event while earning a base of
funds. Avoid cash handling at all the activity
booths and concessions stands by having a few
designated ticket booths. Set a ticket price (#
tickets) for each booth or food item.
• Sell student designed t-shirts, community
recipe/cookbooks, arts and crafts, etc.
• Keep costs down. Ask local businesses to donate
food or supplies. Purchase inexpensive prizes for
the games at party stores.
• Add a bake sale or cake decorating contest.
• Hold a silent auction or raffle. Include themed
baskets where each class parent donates one
small item for a collectively generous basket.
Possible themes:
Family Games, Backyard Fun, Cook’s Delight,
Gardener Goodies, Puzzles, Arts & Crafts,
Pampering, Slumber Party, Water Fun
Don’t forget to give
recognition and send
a “Thank You” note
to those businesses
that helped!

What else can we do
besides games?
A carnival isn't complete without
at least a few good shows.
Feature your community
talent and charge tickets for
admission. Some ideas:
Magic Show
Puppet Show
Talent Contest
Skateboard Freestyle Demo
Dance Performances
Short Play
Choral Groups
Local Bands
Art Show
Ask teachers and
staff to support the
talent show by
allowing students to
practice during
lunch period or after
school.

Activities for Little Kids
• Learn a cheer with a High School
Cheer leader (in uniform)
• Diva Center – paint nails, glitter
hair, face painting, etc.
• Dress-up corner
• Face painting
• Decorate a flower pot and plant
a seed
• Football throw or soccer kick (with a
uniformed HS player helping)
• Basketball toss
• Tackle the quarterback (with a
uniformed HS player as the tackle
target)
• Water balloon toss
• Knock stacked cans with a ball

Activities for Older Kids
• American Idol-like Karaoke Stage (charge per song)
• Who Wants to be a Millionaire-like Trivia Stage
• Hot dog or pie eating contest
• Chalk mural, Group Graffiti Canvas or Trash Sculpture –
group art project where everyone contributes
• Temporary hair coloring, hair braiding and tattoos
• Dunk Tank
• Balloon dartboard
• Corn Hole Toss
• Cake Walk
• Basketball Shoot (Miniature for indoors)
• Silly Photos (Create painted character panels with head
slots cut out. Have a digital camera and printer on site.)
• Guess how many pennies in the jar – closest number
wins the jar!
• Chicken Drop (Create a numbered checkerboard in a
5’ x 5’ space. Sell tickets for each number. The number
the bird ‘drops’ on wins.)
• Cow Drop (same as chicken drop, but section the
football field into a numbered checkerboard.)
I love going to my
church carnival. It
reminds me of when I
was a kid!
-- Grandparent
Freehold, NJ

Activities for kids of all ages!
• Silly string corral (sell small cans of Silly String and rope off a
fun zone)
• Shaving cream/bubble corral
• Cascarones (confetti eggs, kids smash them on each other)
• Box maze (made out of refrigerator boxes from a retail
warehouse and lots of tape)
• Hula Hoop/Jump Rope contests
• Pick-a-pop
• Fishing booth
• Duck race
• Ring toss
• Dime toss
• Water gun targets
• Balloon Pop Relay
• Fun fortune-teller or palm reader
Please visit our blog
for more volunteering
suggestions and to
share your carnival
ideas and stories.

Creative Carnival Game Ideas
Potty Toss
Players try to toss toilet tissue rolls
through toilet seats hung from the
ceiling. Each seat is marked with a
different point value.
Human Slot Machine
Setup three large refrigerator boxes in
a row & cut out a large window in the
front of each. When a player pulls an
imaginary lever, a volunteer standing
in each box tosses possible wax fruits
(orange, banana, apple) up and
down, finally picking one. Three in a
row wins!
Dinosaur Dig/ Treasure Dig
Players dig in shallow boxes of sand for
plastic “dino” eggs. Each egg
contains a slip of paper with a number.
Players can redeem the prize assigned
to the number found on their paper.
Pirate variation: hide chocolate gold
coins & trinkets and players dig for
buried treasure.
End of the Rainbow
Draw a rainbow in chalk on an
outdoor surface. At the end of
rainbow place a miniature pot (or fake
cauldron). Players try to flip pennies
into the pot from a designated point.
Prizes increase depending on the
number of pennies the player tosses
into the pot.
Quack Shack
A costumed volunteer pretends to be
a mad scientist and decorates the kids
with fake scars and wounds.

Fun for Rent!
Carnivals are a good way
to teach kids how to
work in teams, make
decisions, and get
organized!
Organizing a carnival is a
fun way to use math, art,
music, science, and
language arts skills.
With a few simple clicks,
SignUp can help you
organize your next
carnival – and it’s free!
Just log on to
www.SignUp.com.com
to get started!
You don’t need a big budget to have a
successful carnival; however, adding a few
well-selected rentals can increase ticket sales
and expand the fun.
Bounce castle
Giant slide/ Water slide
Photo booth
Pony rides
Petting zoo
Dunking Booth
Video game trailer
Laser tag
Go carts
Test your strength - hammer game
Sumo wrestling
Jousting
Transportable Carnival Rides

Spreading the Word
Having a big turnout is key for your Carnival
fun-raiser! Getting people to show up takes
planning and effort.
Fliers. Hand out information about your
carnival at school or congregation and to
everyone you know. Include the date, time,
location, what kinds of things you’ll have at
your carnival, and a list of sponsors.
Newspapers, newsletters and local websites.
Ask your local newspaper, congregation, or
school newsletter to run a free
announcement about your carnival.
Posters and Banners. Make colorful signs that
tell people about your carnival. Tell the date,
time, location and all the things you’ll have:
“Games! Prizes! Food! Entertainment! Silent
Auction! etc.” The more posters you put up
on telephone poles, at school and at nearby
businesses, the better.
Word of mouth. Tell all your friends and their
parents.

Food and Drinks
• Popcorn
• Snow-cones / snow balls
• Hot dogs/hamburgers
• Cotton candy
• Soft Drinks & Italian Soda
• Peanuts
• Cookies
• Candies
• Pretzels
• Churros or Doughnuts
• Trail mix
• Fruit
• Caramel or candy apples
• Ice cream/ Italian Ice
Many local restaurants and
businesses will donate food in
exchange for sponsored publicity.

Tips for a Successful Carnival
• Print maps of your carnival space.
• Share the fun! Give each class or
group the responsibility of planning and
staffing a specific booth. That team
should consider decorations, setup,
cleanup, and prizes.
• Have plenty of lined garbage cans and
a trash team to keep them ready. Set
the trash cans back away from your
serving area to avoid flies or odors.
• Price your tickets so a typical family
can have a lot of fun and enjoy
multiple activities. Give discounts to
people who buy 20 tickets at once, or
pre-order. Consider selling fixed-priced
wristbands if your carnival is more of a
community-builder than a fundraiser.
Wristbands are simpler than tickets, but
typically not as profitable for the
carnival.
• Offer both substantial food and treats.
Hungry carnival goers appreciate
something filling like pizza or hot dogs in
addition to candy and popcorn.
• Give out prizes right away at each game
booth, or kids can collect ‘point tickets’
redeemable at a prize booth.
• Ask yourself, “Can everybody play this
game?” You may have people come to
your carnival who use crutches ,
wheelchairs. or have less strength in their
arms and hands.
• Set aside a safe, shaded area for babies
and toddlers to crawl and play without
having big kids around. A few gym mats,
some baby toys, a fence of some kind,
and chairs for parents could be all that
you need.
• Cash Sense. Keep cash-handling
locations to a minimum and staffed with
two or more people. Have locked cash
boxes on hand, and a process for moving
and storing large sums of money. Many
banks and supermarkets provide an
auction and carnival service and can help
with your cash process.

Thank you for downloading
this FREE eBook from
SignUp.
We take the hassle out of
volunteering and make it
point-and-click simple to
schedule all your volunteer
activities with our FREE,
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© 2019 SignUp.com the EASIEST way to bring people together!
Copyright holder is licensing this under the Creative Commons License,
Attribution 2.5. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/
We love to hear what you have to
say! If you:
Liked this eBook
Shared this eBook with a friend
Used some of the ideas in this
eBook, or came up with some of
your own
Love volunteering
Want to be more involved with
your kids’ school
Want your kids to be involved
with sharing, caring, and
benefiting others
…And much more!
Be sure to visit our blog to post your
comments and read what other
volunteers have to say!
https://blog.volunteerspot.com/

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