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School Carnivals

lmccandless

lmccandless

The Force is strong with this one.
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I am the chairperson of J's elementary school carnival this year. The first thing my committee has to do is select a theme. I really love the idea of a County Fair type of look - think mason jars, lemonade, retro signage, red and white bunting, fun booth style games. However, I have to present 3 ideas to the committee. Does your school do a carnival? Any great theme suggestions? We have a pretty decent budget and are allowed to hire a carnival company, so I can really run with whatever theme is suggested. I would love to hear ideas from you creative ladies!
 
uggh! this is the very reason i DON'T volunteer to do this stuff. I'm horrible at the creative side of it all!
 
our carnivals have been an ABSOLUTE nightmare..

absolute. ugh. i hate them LOL i avoid going at all costs..

we've had hawaiin theme.. and a weird.. farm theme one that i can't even remember.. i just remember that there was a scarecrow dressup contest-- where they raced to get all dressed as a scarecrow hay stuffing included. i think i've skipped all of the other ones :p /momfail.
 
Our elementary school does a carnival and silent auction every year, it's very successful and a lot of fun. (it's one of my favorite volunteer spots, me not being a "kid person" :blush ) We don't do themes though, so I can't help you there LOL We have a few stations/games that repeat every year and some new ones that come in every year. The little kids seem to like anything where it's easy to get a prize, doesn't matter what the prize is. Face painting and hair coloring, there's always big lines for that. The cake walk is always a huge success. The dunking booth is another big draw as long as you can get staff to volunteer to be dunked LOL Bouncy houses and the like, very busy.
 
Wow the county fair idea sounds awesome! Hmmm...I'm not coming up with any other ideas I guess. Desert, island/tropical, outdoorsy theme, art theme, music, I don't know LOL.
 
oh fun ... i loved our school carnival growing up!

i've never really be to a themed carnival - but some ideas that i can think of:
tropical theme
safari
circus
specific holiday/season depending on the time of year (like a "fall harvest" in the fall, "winter wonderland" etc)
around the world
wild west
 
We are doing a Wizard of Oz theme this year...no rides for us, pretty small school. But we will have games and activities booths and they all deal with some aspect of the Wizard of Oz. We did that because it's technically before Halloween, but the principal didn't want a "scary" costume type carnival.

I went to one last year at another school that was Dr. Seuss themed and it was pretty cute.
 
haha I thought you must have had a school carnival coming up with all the pinning you've been doing!
 
We just had out youngest DDs School Fun Day last weekend and she had a brilliant time going on all the rides ALL day (I'm surprised she didn't throw up!). I manned the second hand book stall which was loads of fun as I got to chat with people about books all day *happy sigh*. We don't theme our fetes though, its hard enough getting parents to participate as it is, I think if we themed it most of them would run screaming for the hills!

I do like the idea of a country fair though Laura, I think that would be adorable!
 
Ours is called a fun fair, but it is the same type of thing. There is no theme nor are there a lot of decorations. There are a couple dozen game booths set up, and each kid uses tickets (that they purchase) to play. And depending on how they do at the games, then they get punches in their game cards. There is a prize table, and the most coveted prizes are lava lamps, but there are a ton of other smaller prizes as well.

As for rides, the most popular attraction at our fair is a mechanical bull. There isn't much room for other rides because this is held indoors.

We also have a cake walk, face painting, candy necklace building, and other artsy stuff.

There are concessions. Pizza, popcorn, sodas, hot dogs, the usual stuff.

There is a raffle, with about 10 prizes given every 30 minutes. Lots of gift card prizes. Raffle tickets are sold starting a week before the fair.

And one thing that makes ours fun is the 'county jail'. Every year the same dad dresses up as sheriff. And he has a bunch of deputies (nice middle school kids) walking around. Their job is to find criminals (mostly little boys, who are dying to get thrown in the jail). A lot of times parents ask/beg them to take their kids away. They make a big production of arresting the kids and hauling them off. And the parents have to pay/donate to get them out. The jail is this giant sectioned area and the entrance is manned by the sheriff. They have the kids do jumping jacks and fun little games in there. It's great for when the kids are on a sugar high and running around and you need a timeout. It's always crowded and a huge fundraiser. You have to have some talented drama type kids in there to make it fun.
 
Farm theme would be fun! Every one cam dress up like cowboys and you can have games like lassoing/roping, and milk jug throws and a petting farm! And hay bales and etc. although I love the county fair theme too and you can always have petting zoos and stuff for hat theme too! Our schools don't do carnivals and it's fine by me! Hahahaha
 
Oh actually our old school did a husky howl. Now that I think of it! They had a several booths, face painting, a photo booth, (cant member the other game booths) cotton candy, snow cones, hot dogs, nachos, they had music and when it got dark they did and outdoor movie night. On the field. It is a huge thing, but we haven't been to that school for a few years, but last year we DID do the carnival as the school is just down the street from us.
 
Love the county jail idea, Carolee! The mechanical bull too!

I think Wizard of Oz would be super fun. Thanks, Tracy! I am going to present that as one of the ideas.
I am torn between farm and circus as options. Both great!
 
Last edited:
nockosh said:
haha I thought you must have had a school carnival coming up with all the pinning you've been doing!
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I think I made a mistake with the pin board. I got a call from a neighbor today who said she had seen all my pins and was wondering if I was in charge of the carnival this year. When I said yes, she said she was expecting the best carnival ever after seeing the ideas. Grrrreat. No pressure there. LOL
 
lmccandless said:
I think I made a mistake with the pin board. I got a call from a neighbor today who said she had seen all my pins and was wondering if I was in charge of the carnival this year. When I said yes, she said she was expecting the best carnival ever after seeing the ideas. Grrrreat. No pressure there. LOL
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I'm sure it will be amazing! I keep remembering those Rapunzel invites you did for you DD's birthday and thinking you must be the most creative, awesome mom EVER! We're just in Pre-K, so no carnival. :( If it's between the Farm and Circus theme, I vote Farm. It just seems fall to me. And I'm SO ready for fall!
 
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