Okay my boss is co-chair of our annual Kiwanis Kiddie Karnival - you know that makes me (as his secretary) the automatic co-chair also!

So we are starting our planning for this year's Karnival and trying to think of some "new" things/booths to have.

How about some ideas from any of you? Nothing too costly or outrageous to build - the Karnival is only one (1) day.

My daughter's (elementary) school just had their carnival (it's only 4 hours long) and they had a new booth this year for the kids to do karoake. This could cost nothing if you know someone who has a karoake machine, tv, microphones and speakers you could use. The kids really enjoyed it and there was always a line.

They also had a pie throwing booth (instead of water dunking because it was too cold). They had a big piece of wood with a silly picture drawn on it and the head cut out for the person to put their face.

Then there was the hair coloring booth where they used those cans of hair color they sell alot around halloween. Last year they had a local hair stylist donate her time to fixing up/braiding the girls hair.

The cake walk is always a huge hit, too. They asked stores to donate baked goods and they asked parents to bring in stuff...either store bought or homemade. I baked up four plates of cookies.

For the little ones they have things like tossing bean bags into coffee cans that have been nailed down to a sheet of wood that's on a slight incline...and they had a sheet of wood with pegs in it and it's just like the Plinko game on The Price is Right. They also like the cone shaped thing they stick a bunch of lollipops in..they pick one and depending on what color dot it has on the stick, they get that many tokens - and they keep the lollipop. New this year they had a treasure chest filled with sand and little trinkets.

I don't know if any of this would be new to you...but just some ideas.

peapie

Our school/church has a large carnival every year, it runs 2 weekends. One of the things they do is a bucket wheel for the kids. It costs a quarter and if your number hits, the child wins a bucket full of stuff. We ask each classroom to donate different items - juice boxes, little snack bags, bubbles, dollar store toys, etc. Then they get the buckets from the dollar store and fill them. This works really well and is profitable if you have the donation participation.

Face painting is another big thing. It's .50 to have something painted on their cheek and then it's $3.00 I think to have their whole face done. Face paint is fairly inexpensive.

You could check out oriental trading for sand bottle art supplies - this is also a big thing for the kids.

Good luck!

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Our school does the cake walk and a plant walk also. Plants are always a big hit among the adults. Among kids the toy walk is the big thing.
For the younger kids they have a plastic swimming pool with plastic ducks, numbered on the bottom with 1, 2 or 3. If the child gets a duck with 1, they get a small prize, 2= medium prize and 3=large. They also have a fishing game. You have to put up something to hide a person behind, give the child the fishing pole, they throw it over the "wall" and the person behind it, attaches a toy to the pole.
We have many other booths but most require building the game.
Have fun!

what is the "cake walk"?

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I was born free, but now I'm expensive!

Participants walk around a path with numbered squares in time with music; when the music stops, a number is called out and the person standing on that square receives a cake. Cakes are usually donated by members of the church or school and the participants buy tickets to play.

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Brenda

GO #24 JEFF GORDON

What about a dime pitch?

To do this, you have to get a variety of inexpensive prizes. I've seen all sorts of things used, and not everything has to be brand new. Some of the most successful dime pitches I've seen have used dishware(all donated pieces that were used but in excellent condition) as the prizes. Then you stack/pile/organize the prizes in such a way that someone could pitch a dime at the pile and have the dime land on one of the prizes. The prize their dime lands on is the prize they win. The dime actually has to on the prize, not just next to it so its touching. You don't have to use dimes, you can use anything you want to "pitch". Most times the game costs 10 cents to play and the dime someone pitches is one out of their own pocket.

Just be careful to pile the prizes in such a way so that it is possible to get a dime(or whatever token you use) on each of them, although it doesn't have to be easy to do so. For example, if you have a board game as a prize, stand it on edge so there is just a narrow space to get the dime on. Leave some space between the prizes so each pitch isn't a winner if you want to. You could pile really cheap little things in the front so its very easy for little kids to get a prize and put some cooler, bigger prizes up high/toward the back to give older kids/adults something to keep trying for.

Very easy to do and very popular everytime I've seen it done(I've lost my share of dimes at this game lol!)

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A good cake walk alternative is to give boxes of Little Debbie cakes. One year we had teachers that were opening the boxes of Little Debbies and giving a single cake.
A triage area is always popular. Bandages, eye patches, etc.
Jail, so many tickets to put someone in and the prisoner has to pay so many tickets to get out or set out their time in jail.

Ring toss
Ball toss into gold fish bowls
Coin toss into interesting looking glasses, etc picked up at second hand store
Balloon pop
Cake walk
Wheel of prizes
Face painting
Basketball toss
Fishing into a kiddie pool each fish has a number or color that corresponds to a shelf or drawer of prizes
Petting zoo with a goar, puppies, pony

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The political system is broke and it's a joke.

and he wants to do it again this year.

We had a tic/tac/toe (I found an empty glass holder made of cardboard at Walmart and placed it in a larger box) and they had to make 3 in a row.

A penny-pitch.. lots of glassware on a small picnic table. Kids get 10 pennies and try to have them land in one. We lost a lot of pennies though. Next year we are going to set the glasses in the bottom of a fish tank and have them drop them in.

Home made plinko board
Home made ladder golf (both are easy and can find directions online)
balloon darts
mini golf (I got a small putting green at a garage sale)
water gun spray (sit ping pong balls on the top of beer bottles and have the kids spray them off)
Duck pond game
tin can knock over

Have fun!

Pencil pull ~ set up a board with 1 pencil (identified by coloring the tip of the pencil) that wins a big prize, and all the other pencils that get pulled you get to keep the pencil. Stick the pencils eraser side facing out.


Bingo ~ 1 ticket per card to play. The winner gets half the tickets in the pot. EVERYONE loves BINGO!


Face painting station ~ charge 2 or 3 tickets

Make a sand jar ~ charge 2 or 3 tickets

Ring around a pop can ~ if they get a ring around a can thats what they win


Corn Hole ~ 1 sided (get the bag in the hole) when candy


Envelope pull~ THIS IS THE MOST POPULAR AT OUR KIDS SCHOOL! Punch a hole in one end of the envelope ( you will need a ton of envelopes) inside the envelopes place #'s that coordinate with a prize box and then also a bunch of Sorry Try again. Limit the envelopes they can pull to like 5 to be fair for all.