Invite advanced art students to do face painting at your school carnival.
Planning and organizing a school carnival can be an enjoyable event for students and their families and can raise money for activities during the school year. Commonly, the school's parent-teacher organization plans the carnival with help from parent volunteers. The event typically includes games, activities, art projects and rides as well as prizes for the children.
Games
There are many games that can be constructed by school volunteers, such as a duck pond made of a kid's swimming pool filled halfway with water and floating rubber ducks marked on the bottom for winning prizes. Prop a piece of plywood with balloons stapled on it on a table to make a dart game and set a piece of wood with glass bottles glued to it on a table as a ring toss. Invite some parents to donate the use of an air hockey table, foosball game and basketball-throw game for the carnival or rent them from a rental company.
Carnival Booths
Set up carnival booths for face painting, sand art and spin art for the children and adults to participate in during the event. Parent volunteers or students from the art department at a nearby college or university can paint the children's faces, encourage artistic projects to be completed at carnival booths and offer art advice to the participants. Sell food and beverages such as cotton candy, snow cones, popcorn, homemade goods and fresh-squeezed lemonade, and involve the children in making their own items. For example, each child can swirl the paper cone in the cotton candy machine with adult supervision.
Large-Group Activities
Organize a cake walk to benefit the school as a fundraiser or an activity, and ask parents and family members to donate the confections to be awarded for the game. A DJ can announce group dances such as the Chicken Dance and the Hokey Pokey or teach line dances, step by step, to carnival attendees. Group games such as a horseshoes or washers tournament, flag football and tug of war are appropriate games for a school carnival.
Rides and Inflatable Attractions
Although renting inflatable attractions such as slides and bounce houses, and ponies for volunteer-led riding, can be pricey, the cost can be regained through the sale of tickets necessary to ride on the attractions. It never hurts to ask for the attractions to be donated or allowed for use at a reduced price, especially if a locally owned inflatable attraction establishment or horse farm is owned or run by a parent of a child who attends the school. It may be feasible to approach an attraction company to collect donations for the rides to offset their costs when they are donated.
Tags: activities, school, school carnival, carnival booths, cotton candy, face painting
