GaMom, THANK YOU!!!!!
I'm kicking myself for previously ordering some things from Oriental TC that I could've gotten from GTA for MUCH less!!

Although, I think you made my job harder - my new goal is now finding 11k cool things for $213.

Can you share how many students you have and how many total people you expect at your event?

With prices like these, I will feel *great* about giving every child a prize at each booth/game! However, this is our first year and I'm not sure how to calculate possible attendance. I'll definitely try to over buy and whatever's left can go into treasure box for the classes for next year.

Hey! We just ordered our prizes from goodtimeattractions.com and got 11000 for $213.00. they have tons of stuff in grosses and shipping is free over 60.00. We also asked parents to donate 1 bag of candy and teachers to donate 2 bags of candy.

Each class is responsible for a game/booth. right now, i have nail painting, plinko, lollipop tree, treasure hunt, african safari (booth decorated with jungle wrapping paper, kids put thier hands in box of sand to find prizes), face painting, clothes pin drop, hair beading, braiding, magnet game, M&M game, magnetic darts, nascar box relay, scary chairs, spin the wheel, hair spray, bean bag toss, golf, velcro ball throw, basketball hoops, cookie dcorating booth, duck pond, and tattoo's. One of my classes is doing a cheeto throw--we got hawiaan hat with a brim--put shaving cream or whip cream on it, kids throw cheettos and try to hit top of hat. Everyone wins a prize at all booths/games. parent volunteers run the booths but we have the JR rotc from the local high school, they have xx number of community hours they have to serve so this helps them a lot.

We sell tickets 1 for .50 and 25 for $10.00. we have an inflatable slide that is 2 tickets, the most--everything else is 1. Atthis point, we have a lady coming to make candy apples and funnel cakes--she gives us .25 for every 1.00---totally awesome! We also have chic fil a coming to set up a tent and sell sandwiches and lemonade, we get 10%. Tropical smoothy also does that. the local PD and FD are coming and bringing their cars and passing out safety stickers. We sell hotdogs, nachos, popcorn, and drinks--all paper products were donated by Zaxby's and Dairy Queen. All drinks donated by Kroger, and hotdogs by Sams club.

So, there is a lot that you can do, it just depends on how big you want to do it. This is oneof our biggest fundraisers all year and a tradition at our school. We put signs up at the local pre-k's and local church's, along with local businesses to promote--just fliers that we decorate up some!

have fun!

I am coordinating our school's first on-site Family Fall Festival this year as well - this friday 10/13. This website message board helped me out greatly on ideas and things that worked and did not work out well. One site I encourage you to check out is schoolcarnival.com. They have great game ideas, sites for prize orders and much more. I found a very useful tool on that site in regards to ordering prizes. It's a "calculator" of sorts that helps you figure out just how many prizes you need to have on hand based on the time frame of your event, the number of participants, and how long it takes to play the actual game. It's a great site to check out.
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me. Good luck!!!

We've been doing a Fall Festival for 10 years now
it's held on the Saturday after Columbus Day from 10AM to 2PM. The local fire dept. brings grills and sells hamburgs, hot dogs, soda, chili, etc. - we don't charge them anything and it works out well - they earn some money and we don't have to think about preparing lunch!

We hire a ballon sculptor/magician who entertains the kids for 2 hours - he does a great job and we can still have him in bad weather (like last year).

We do a bounce house that a local business (one of the parents) pays for, so we offer it for free. We also offer a free hay ride. We usually try to have a demonstration of some type at 1:00 - a local martial arts school, jumprope team, etc. This year we're having the local high school cheerleaders. Many families stay for the full 4 hours and this gives them something new near the end of the event - and it's free!

Each classroom creates a theme basket (gardening, chocolate, birdwatching, sports, etc) that we raffle - each class keeps the money generated by their basket. The drawing is held at 2:00 which is why so many people stay until the end of the day! Each classroom also creates a game for the kids to play and the PTCA provides prizes from Oriental Trading Co. Games cost 25c to play.

We have a bake sale, including decorate your own cookie or cupcake, as well as other baked goods and fresh popped popcorn. We have an art table with 3 or 4 crafty activities including pumpkin decorating. We allow people to set up tag sales and craft booths. We used to have a portable rock climbing wall, but it's very expensive and people were concerned about safety.

This is not a fundraiser for us, other than the money that the classrooms make. We typically spend about $300 on this event and we feel that it's important to offer such an exciting family event! We have many low income families who wouldn't come to Fall Fest if it was too expensive. Looks like good weather is predicted for next Saturday - wish us luck!!

dlf is right - you'll find tons of helpful tips from the Search Message Boards function. Try this link to read a recent thread:

www.ptotoday.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=31;t=000532

Thanks Dlf, I'll look into it today. Appreciate the response.