Carnival ideas? (Fundraiser)

[momm2four]

Instead of selling "stuff" this year through our students, our middle school is having one fundraiser, and it will simply be a carnival which will be held during the school day.

Each homeroom is responsible for hosting a booth for a few hours. Any items needed to run the booth or any prizes given away must be provided by the homeroom.

I really like the idea, b/c it means no selling for the kids and no collecting outstanding money once the fundraiser is over. It will all be clear profit for our school, but will be fun for the students.

My question is....does anyone have any great ideas for my homeroom's booth? I want to do something that's a little different, but will appeal to middle school students.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Lori P.

 

[hlbtimes2]

Just a warning, you probably will not make a lot of money from a carnival. I know that when our schools do a carnival they do it for the fun of it, but it doesnt really make money. We charge for food, games, etc- but it usually just covers the cost to host it. You'll be asking parents to donate prizes, food, etc- then asking them for money to sell the things to other students. Might just be easier to ask the parents to donate money and skip the selling/ buying/ carninval.

 

[CPM]

we do a spring festival, similar to a carnival. But it's done on a Friday night and we do it in conjunction with the classroom open house.
We raised $13,000 last year. Everything was donated.

We sold tee shirts with sponsor names on the back to raise the money for the large items like the bounce house, laser tag and others. The tees were a hit! The PE teacher promoted them by letting them get a head start on a run or throw an extra basket, stuff like that, if they wore it on PE day. So we covered the cost of the tee by the kids buying them and the sponsors that were displayed on the back of the tee donated money for the large stuff.

Face painting is always a hit and is inexpensive. Other smaller game type stuff were, bowling, plinko, Cake walk, toy walk, knock the cans down (we glued pictures of teachers on these LOL) & duck pond.

We sold hot dog and hamburg meals, popcorn and beverages.
We had a local ice-cream place some in and sell ice-cream, he gave us 50%. We also did that powder candy thing the same way.This is all done by ticket sales.

The local fire dept and sheriff dept. came for free and the kids had loads of fun with them. They even got to try the fire hose!! This year we are trying to get the helicopter!

Build a Bear came and they donated 25% of their sales. To me, these are the best because they don't require volunteers and you still make money.

Anyway, I hope you can get an idea or two from this.

 

[RNMOM]

I chaired a carnival committee in PTA a few years ago. It was an evening carnival and we made over $6000 profit but we spent a lot of time getting donated items for a raffle.

One fun thing the kids enjoyed was a T.P toss. There was a toilet seat mounted on a frame, about dart board height and the idea was to toss rolls of toilet paper through the seat to win a prize. It went over well. We wrapped the paper with saran to keep it from shredding with the handling. Lots of laughing over that one.

One thing that made us the most money was the donated items and baskets made up by individuals. We raffled them off and it was pure profit.

It is hard to make money when the kids are coming alone. You almost need the parents to be dragged along to keep supplying the little critters with more money.

 

[frndofpooh]

We do a Fun Fair (carnival) every year in conjunction with a silent auction. In our school, it is the auction that makes the most money. The carnival clears a couple thousand (school of 400 kids).

The cake walk idea is always a hit, and they always have bingo set up in one of the rooms. Another thing that goes over well is a fortune teller (have a teacher/parent dress up like a gypsy and tell fortunes). That always has a line! We've also done sand art in glass bottles or jars and that is usually quite popular.

We've done the basket idea that a previous poster mentioned. Each homeroom got a theme (chocolate, movie night, sports, outdoors) and developed a basket around it to be auctioned. The baskets bring in a lot of money. Good luck!

 

[Disney Hot Mama]

One fun thing the kids enjoyed was a T.P toss. There was a toilet seat mounted on a frame, about dart board height and the idea was to toss rolls of toilet paper through the seat to win a prize. It went over well. We wrapped the paper with saran to keep it from shredding with the handling. Lots of laughing over that one.

.

I think this is a perfect game for middle schoolers. That age is a difficult one - can't do the 'normal' carnival type games due to the age of the kids. In addition to the above idea our school does a jail. We have an MC and kids pay to have other kids sent to 'jail'. Those sent to jail have to pay to get out of jail. We actually have a jail someone made with PVC in black and it is great.... The MC announces "Jim P - Alice B. has just sent you to jail." Cost is $0,00 to get released early of your can stay for XX minutes until your parole.....

With the IPOD crazy you might try to think of something where you could give prized like a free download on i-tunes or something like that.....

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

I chaired a carnival committee in PTA a few years ago. It was an evening carnival and we made over $6000 profit but we spent a lot of time getting donated items for a raffle.

One fun thing the kids enjoyed was a T.P toss. There was a toilet seat mounted on a frame, about dart board height and the idea was to toss rolls of toilet paper through the seat to win a prize. It went over well. We wrapped the paper with saran to keep it from shredding with the handling. Lots of laughing over that one.

One thing that made us the most money was the donated items and baskets made up by individuals. We raffled them off and it was pure profit.

It is hard to make money when the kids are coming alone. You almost need the parents to be dragged along to keep supplying the little critters with more money.

I work in Facilities at my work, and each year we have a carnival to raise money for the needy families. Our booth is the toilet paper in the toilet seat, and we use plungers to stack the rolls of TP. Since were known as the department of roads and commodes we thought it was appropriate.


A couple of ideas...

Get a store (if you can) to donate liter or 2-liter bottles of soda, and have a soda ring toss booth. Whoever gets a ring around a soda gets to keep the soda. -- If the bottles are donated, then your cost is supplies, and the rest is profit. Our soda-ring toss at our church carnival went well this year.

How about a picture booth -
Have a fun (or funny) backdrop, and fun clothes that the kids bring/donate, then have people dress up and take their picture with a digital camera - you can print out the pic & give it to them -- of course, you will need a digital camera, computer or laptop, and printer. Get some photo paper - you can put 2-4 photos on a page, print it out, and then cut the pics out. Before the carnival, you can get colored paper, have a square cut out on one side, & insert the picture (like the photo cards). Someone can even print the name of the carnival, school, year, on the border.

 

[AprilShowers]

Jail is a big hit at our Spring Fling too! Our kids will spend tons of money to have their friends (or crushes) put in jail!!!