I noticed your comment about us "having more help" and I'll fill you in our secret here. We host the carnival, but make it very clear that the teachers have to do their part. The principal is 100% behind this too. Each teacher is assigned a booth and it is his/her duty to recruit their classroom parents to work a shift usually no longer than 30 minutes. This should be for the entire school, not the parents entertaining the kids. AND the "T" in PTO/PTA stands for teachers. Since they benefit they also need to participate! The kids need to see that the teachers are willing to do their part. In every organization I have ever been involved in, there has always been a small percentage that carried the weight, I don't know what the magical formula is to get the others off their duffs, but I'll still do my part and then some. :cool:

Thanks to all of you! Great ideas. It sounds like you may have more "help" than we do but I am sure I can make these ideas work! THanks!

My daughter is hooked on Harry Potter. I was surfing for ideas and came across this school's fun fair with a Harry Potter theme... really cool.

If you're looking to revamp your school's haunted house/craft fair theme, this may help. They have unicorn rides (with the horns removed for safety!!), Enchanted Flight (aka Moon bounce); it's really cute.

Here's the website: www.computwins.com/funfair/index.htm

Fireman's Hose?

Kids had water syringes and had to put out candles.

We also do a fall festival we do a lot of the same things listed above. One more thing to think about is having a program. Meaning set up local gymnastics, cheerleading teams, choirs (childrens) etc. We have 4 elementarys in our town and by doing this they have to attend and all of them stayed and participate even though they did not attend our school. Probably brought in at least a 250 people (grandparents, parents, anyone wanting to see their little darling perform)And these people need to eat a often bid on silent auction class baskets. One last thing we rented out tables 20.00 to anyone like Avon, Pampered Chef, jewerly makers and they showed their goods and we had 20.00 no expenses (we borrowed tables from a local church) just a thought!
Also we contacted the local Crime stopper and they came out and just kids in "jail" (50 cents to have someone put in 1.00 to be bailed out)and past out their pamplets pure profit!

one last thing--venzmama what is firemans hose??? :confused:

Our major fundraiser is a Fall Carnival and Silent Auction. We have two haunted houses, one for younger kids and one for the older ones. Each class sponsors a carnival game, each group (Student Council, NJHS, NHS, etc) sponsors an activity, we have food & drinks, and so on. Each class also sponsors a theme basket for a silent auction. Last year we traded a bag of candy for an entrance ticket and killed two birds with one stone. Our ice cream vendors were a big hit, we rented two vendor carts full of popsicles and such and two teachers dressed in costume roamed the site. We also do confetti eggs: everyone is asked to collect empty eggs (when you use them you just break enough off the top to get the insides out and then wash them thoroughly.) The group in charge then fills them with confetti and covers the broken end with tissue paper. These can be broken on peoples' heads. Weird, I know, but the kids love them.

Our activities included: Haystack treasure, Fireman hoses, bean bag tosses, fish pond, jail, cake walk, ring the bottle, face painting, tatoos, moonwalk, dart & balloon bust, and the haunted houses. I'm sure there were others, but I can't remember. :cool: