Last year was our first carnival, and one thing we learned is to do away with the prize redemption booth. Then again, we're a school of close to 1,000. We plan on having prizes of varying levels at each booth, and bags being donated for the kids to tote around their loot.

A Book Walk sounds great! And it is easier to carry around a couple of books than a cake and a plate full of cookies!! Have gently read books donated and supplement with some of the .95 and 1.95 books from Scholastic. I think it would be a great idea!!

My point on soliciting money from parents is that it is easier to consolidate small amounts of money than hitting every small business in town. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't try and get prizes from parents, business owners, or parents who are business owners! I can see the point about getting items from parents though - good idea.

Also, again I like tickets because you can count at the end of the day and see which game is most popular (if you redeem at the games.) Yes cards are easier, but can you tell which game is a dud? Some are obvious...in our cases, some weren't so obvious - slow all day, not popular, but not outright duds.

this is our second year for our "funfest". last year we had the prize table and it was okay but not the greatest so this year we are doing prizes in every room and a card. we will have a consolation prize a medium prize and a large prize. this encourages them to keep playing the same game so they can get the larger prize. the card will get it's own prize once it is completed so that they want to play a lot of games. we'll have to see how well it works out.

as far as the raffle goes...our 360 student school made over $1200 on the basket auction and another $2500 on raffle tickets. ours are two separate events. the raffle consists of all the donations we've gotten from businesses and each raffle ticket costs $2. the auction is a live auction with all of the baskets from each classroom. we ask parents to send an item related to their basket theme. such camping and fishing, candles and relaxation, cooking, etc. it works pretty well cause they may spend a lot more on an item rather than sending $5 to school. of course there are always those classrooms who don't have too many parents send things but we work around that. sometimes we put baskets together and sometimes we just have smaller baskets. this year we have two art baskets, one is really big and one is not. that way a family who can't afford to spend $100 on the big one might have a chance to buy the small one for a lot less. last year our camping and fishing basket brought in $250. people donated tents, fishing poles, sleeping bags, camping passes, coolers and tons of other stuff. much more than if we had just asked them for money.
glad to see this topic on here our funfest is the 21st of this month.

These are great ideas! Our fair is coming up in about a month, so tell me how did you all decide on how many prizes to purchase for the redemption booth? Did you use the Oriental trading worksheet?

I also really like the candy bar/cup cake idea , as well, for the walk. So many ideas!!!

This is our 1st fair, and we are having 4 inflatables, still working on the games, food, and I hope a whole lot of fun!
Wheww! I had no idea and were just getting started!
Thanks,
Jewelz

We have done a cake walk the last two years and the kids love it!!! You will be surprised at how many have never heard of this before.
As far as prizes, we give kids an index card with a yarn necklace to hang around thier necks. At each game they receive a stamp and when they are done playing they go to the prize table. We get alot of prizes form Oriental Trading Co.