We use photo cards with our badge maker. It is very popular. The kids get pics with their best friends and fake driver's licenses. They think it is cool.
We have a Wheel of Fortune wheel made from wood. I personally would like to have a plinko board also.
Tatooes and face paintings are extremely popular as well. We also did a fortune telling room last year the kids thought was a hoot. Our biggest "booths" are the Laser Room and the Haunted House. We probably made $600.00 the first year we did haunted house. Last year it was more graphic so they upped the price.
I've also gotten ideas from schoolcarnival.com and I think there are some ideas on www.ideazone.com.
Photo Booth - last year we had our school photographer come. They brought a nice background and made a fall scene. We used polaroid film. They had the option to just have the picture or have the picture inserted into a button or a keychain. The cost was nominal to us from the photographer. It only cost us the film which we got at Costco.
We have also done digital at our Craft Fair when we did pictures with Santa. We printed them as they came but we didn't have a long line.
Games - we are a k-6 school so our games have to cover a wide span of interests. We flucutate between 20 and 25 booths on the average each year.
1.Poker Chip Toss - Fill a small pool about half full with water. Float foam bowls in the water. Have the kids try to toss the poker chips into the bowls. (I have done this inside)
2.Fantasy Dice - set up 6 chairs at a table labeled 1 thru 6. When the chairs are full roll a die and whichever number is rolled is the winner. You could also let them roll to see if they can roll their own number.
3.Fishing - fill small paper bags with goodies and close them with the clothespins that have the hooks on the top. Make your fishing pole with an old broom stick by attaching one of the same clothespins to the end of the stick. Then they fish for their prize.
4.Penny Splash - use an old 10 gallon aquarium filled with water. Sink three tall glasses so they stand upright. the kids try to drop pennies into the glasses.
5.Frog bog - small wasing pool with water and foam plates floating. Make frog diecuts, number them and then laminate. Also number the plates. They toss their frog to try to land it on the lily pad. Then if they match number to number they get a bonus prize.
6.Mug Shot - set up severl coffee mugs or glasses. Player must toss or bounce a badminton birdie into a cup.
7.Pumpkin golf - 2 large pumpkins carved with Large mouths. Place a strip of astroturf in front of each one as a putting green. Have kids hit golf balls into the mouth of a pumpkin.
8.Pumpkin bowling - most of the plastic bowling games are too small. (depends on the age range) if you need large pins use 2 liter bottles. I purchased blow up pumpkins to use as the bowling ball. Prizes were awarded according to how many pins they knocked down in 2 rolls.
9.Ring toss - we got 2 liters of soda donated.
10.The kids also love the ping pong toss to win live goldfish. we were able to get the fish donated from a local pet store for advertising where they came from at the booth.
11.Use a Toss Across game from home to play tic tac toe. Or use cupcake pans.
12.Maybe someone has one of those velcro pitch targets you could borrow.
13.Spin art was pretty popular last year.
14.Beanie baby shuffle board - tape out a shuffle board type game on the floor. Use a broom to direct the beenie baby where you want it to go. Award prizes by total score.
15. Musical bales - use hay bales instead of chairs.
16.We also have a teacher who made her own Plinko board.
17.A couple other versions of ring toss and bean bag toss that were purchased from OTC.
18.I like the idea of the sand art as well. I found a company called Sandy Candy but haven't been able to try it yet.
19.Sucker pull - we tried this with pencils instead of suckers. I guess you could use anything on a stick.
20.Pyramid thow - use empty soda cans and nerf balls.
21.Monster parlor - tattoos, face painting, hair striping.
22.Do you know anyone who can make balloon figures?
23.Penny Pitch - a kinder class made their own board (fits on a card table). Player pitch pennies onto the board to win certain prizes.
24.We also have a teacher who has a color wheel. I didn't actually see how they played this game but the line was always long.
25. Bucket Bonanza - use ice cream buckets or coffee cans. Have players toss ball into them.
I am in the middle of planning our Fall Festival...Can you tell?
I was thinking of a photo booth for a festival that we have. We have a father that works for a company and he can get polaroid film for us. So I was thinking about doing that so the kids can get their pictures right away on the spot. Digital could be a problem unless you have a surpluss of memory sticks. I am not sure how many pictures you can take ( I never paid attention - and it depends on the memeory of the stick). Depending on the # of kids you are talking about in all likelihood you would have to stop to download them and then delete them off the stick.
For the frog flush game...Places like Home Depot have these huge buckets, professional painters use them. They probably hold like 50 gallons. My husband uses them...when he gets in I can ask him exactly what they call them. But they are a good height and probably the perfect diameter for that.
speaking of carnivals, has anyone done a photo booth. i wanted to make some backgrounds and hang them on our gym wall. my question is this--how do you get the pictures to the kids? is it better to do a digital picture or to buy disposible cameras? If you use digital, how many pictures do you take before you print them or do you wait and deliver them in school?
ok, next question. i found a game on the board called "flush the frog" and found some really cute plush frogs from OTC. My question is-- what do you use to put the toilet seat on? is it a board, a box, or what?
thanks for any help
