PTO Today

Every year our school has a fun carnival. It has pony rides, a dunk tank that the teachers go in, a bounce house. What other fund ideas can we do? We have great Dad's that are willing to help make the games-we have a car racing game. Some of the games have been aroung for a long time. I would just like to see something newer to get the kids excited. Any suggestions?

What about a Pie in the Face booth. We also did Karaoke, and the kids LOVED it!

Face painting-- spray painting tatoos station-- spinning art booth-- other carnival games such as fishing-- the ring on the bottle games-- ping pong ball in the fish bowl-- you can also have a candy booth-- find a local candy store that come with a set-up and maybe give back 10-15% of sales.

the most popular game at our fun fair is Soup to Nuts......It is a game run strictly on donations...we send a letter home asking families to clear out the closets/ shelves and donate new, gently used, unopened items....(pencils, party favors. individual wrapped candy/ food items, a can of soup,crayons,
beanie babies, toys, stickers, tatoos,.....) We have a wheel the kids spin (numbered 1-25 and a star )and a table cloth that is broken up into and numbered 1 thru 25. The donated items are put on each square. The child pays 1 ticket per spin. The prize is determined by what Number they spin, if they land on the star they get to choose any number square for their prize.
Parents that work for big companies will sometimes get donations of product. I also went around to local fast food places and asked if they could donate kids meal toys from past promotions. You need at least 2 people to run the game...1 to take ticket and run the wheel and another to give out prizes and keep squares covered. The kids love it because they always win..whether its a book or a bar of soap!

We rented a dunk tank last year and the teachers were asked to spend 20 minutes each in it. We posted the schedule so kids could see when their "favorite" teacher would be in it. The kids loved it and the teachers had fun too. It was the hit of th night!!!!

We just revised our carnival and had a new game. It was called the suprise wall. It was a large piece of plywood on a stand. It had 5 holes cut in at kid height. The holes had 4-5 inch pvc pipe glued in them. On the front, we used wooden shapes from Joann's, attached with hook and eye picture hangers to cover the hole. Four of the tubes had prizes, the fifth had someone behind the board shooting silly string. The kids would have a turn and could pick one shape and lift it up. They would get a prize, or silly string in the face. They all wanted the silly string. Kids would go right to the back of the line and play again.

We also had an extreme makeover room with face painting, hair color, and nails. We only had 4 people doing these. The line was a half an hour. All the kids wanted it done. I would recommend more people or just doing tattoos, but the kids love it.

Another new hit was a stuffed animal walk. Kids were asked to donate gently used stuffed animals. Parents seemed all to happy to send these in. They had 24 numbers on the floor and were able to give away 5 animals per game. The room was always full.