I just thought I would share an idea that we thought of for our carnival and that we got lots of great responses from.
First, let me start by saying this was our first carnival (middle school) and I took some of the ideas that I had asked for earlier to use in planning for next year's carnival.
A quick rundown, before I share our idea. We had three inflatable items, a jump house, a big slide, and a 60' obstacle course. We also rented 10 games and bought a large bag of candy for each game booth. We also had paper bags for the kids to put their candy in. We had also arranged for an item called a Balloon Splash. Basically, someone sits in a chair under a filled balloon and then the kids throw the balls at the target, if it hits, then the balloon breaks over the person in the chair. Unfortunately, the weather has been horrible here and we ended up canceling that because of the rain (it would have defeated the purpose, lol). The other items were set up inside the gym, and in the cafeteria we had hot dogs, chips, pop, water, and popcorn for refreshments. We also had the cheerleaders from the high school on hand to do face painting, bigger hit than I expected. We had gotten five baskets to do raffles with. We had a painted feather that a lot of kids really wanted. We had a basket of coffee items, a basket of movie night items, a basket with a quilt and dinner gift certificate, and we had a spirit wear basket. Huge hits, the kids were all over them. We sold tickets 4 for a buck and boy were they hot. We had a bag in front of each basket/item and they could choose which basket(s) they wanted to put their tickets in.
We also gave a great deal on the concessions, we gave a hot dog, drink, and chips for $2. We wanted to make sure the kids ate something, since our carnival took place from 5 to 7pm.
Let's see, we also had the fire department there to sell life vests and we had a locol sheriff's office deputy there. They did not charge us for their time, but we will be sending them a sincere "thanks". The cheerleaders were there on hand to earn their volunteer hours and all of our hot dogs, buns, chips and drinks were donated. We did not have a popcorn popper, but a local elementary school stepped up and not only loaned us one to use, but staffed it as well.
Here's our great discovery: When we were discussing how to set up the cashier's booth so that it would be right in between the food and game areas we got on the topic of what to charge for tickets and then that turned into "How many tickets per ride and how many per game?" Personally, I've never liked having to buy tickets because you always end up buying an off amount and spending more that you really intended to in the first place, not to mention, writing numerous checks because you didn't realize how many you would need. Now, add all that plus the fact that since it is a middle school function most of the kids would just be dropped off with some money. Yes, we would have liked the parents to stay and enjoy the event with their kids, but that's not usually the case. Hence, WRISTBANDS! We sold wristbands for $7 during lunch hours. The wristbands were for unlimited rides and games. This worked out wonderfully! The kids got to really wear themselves out going on the slide and obstacle course, over and over again. None of the parents manning the rides and games had to save tickets and the kids only didn't have to worry about not having enough money for concessions or not having enough for rides and we had many parent volunteers and teachers comment how much they loved the wristband idea. It made the rides and games a breeze. OH, also the wristbands were paper strips, but they don't rip.
Now, side note: the 8th graders weren't too thrilled, so we are asking them for their input on what they would do better. We had a lot of kids tell us they would have preferred it outside (that's where it was originally planned, but the weather was so unpredictable that we just couldn't take that chance). The 6th graders absolutely loved it! The 7th graders were a mix of "cool" and "boring". But that's okay, this will give us insight as to how to accommodate 7th and 8th graders better next year.
Anyway, we actually made a bit of a profit, even though we had just planned on breaking even.
Just thought I would share, have a great day,
DJ
