Fall Carnival Fun Anytime!

Last weekend, Anna’s day care held a Fall Carnival. It was our first such undertaking, and I enjoyed being a part of the planning. 

We decided to have about 10 kids’ games, art stations like mask making and decorating paper pumpkins, a photo booth, a yard sale table, and a bouncy house.  Of course, we also needed food, so we decided to serve hot dogs, apple cider, cotton candy and other light refreshments.

As the event drew closer, I wondered how we were going to get everything accomplished with just the small number of parent volunteers we had. But we did it! I was very proud of the way it turned out, and all the kids had a great time.

Action shot in the bouncy house!

 And that got me thinking….many of the carnival activities would be fun for kids any day of the year, especially when the weather is bad, when the kids are bored, or when they have play dates with friends and need something to do.

So, I’ll share with you some of the games we played that maybe your kids and their friends would enjoy playing at home!

Pumpkin bowling

Here, we set up empty 2-liter soda bottles as pins and the kids rolled mini-pumpkins down a lane we set up in the parking lot to “bowl.”

Photo from momedy.blogspot.com - Brave to try inside!

Apple Toss and Floating Apples

These were a lot of fun as well. The apple toss was just what it sounds like – the kids took small foamy fake apples and tried to toss them into a nearby barrel.  For the gloating apples, we put plastic apples with prizes inside in a tub filled with water, and the kids had to fish one out with a mini aquarium fish net.

Knock down monsters

This one was a big hit! Since our theme was fall we had a lot of pumpkin games and Halloween related activities. This game simply involves gathering some empty soda cans, decorating them with construction paper (in this case, we made monsters) and then setting them up on top of each other to be knocked down. We used soft small pumpkins (which I believe were made of foam) for the kids to throw at the cans.  Everyone loved it!

Ring the pumpkin

Here, the kiddos had a few hula hoops to try to toss so that they would land around a nearby pumpkin. It was harder than it looked!

Photo from readymadeblogs.mydevstaging.com

Treasure dig

This one is great if you have a sandbox.  We bought plastic treasure chests and filled them with prizes. Then we buried them in the sand box on the day care playground for the kids to find. It was a big hit!

Photo from ehow.com article by Elle Hanson

We got most of our supplies (prizes, plastic treasure chests, etc.) from Oriental Trading Co. and they were super affordable. And of course, a lot of things are readily available at dollar stores or at Wal-Mart, such as the glue, glitter, markers and other supplies for making masks and decorating pumpkins. That could be easily transformed into any holiday theme – Christmas, Thanksgiving, Valentine’s Day, etc.

Anyway, we hope to do this again next year on an even bigger scale, possibly as a charity fund-raiser, but these activities are fun year-round and would be a creative change of pace your kids would love! Let us know if you try any of them.  Have fun!