Sunday, October 17, 2010

Fall Carnival with kids!


We decided to have a “Back to School Fall Carnival” that was so much fun here at Fun and Facts with Kids.  The kids invited two of their close friends to enjoy this festival with us.
 
The Decorations – We searched our local Dollar Stores and came up with a few ideas.
-          The Carnival Sign – we used red and white poster board and then used Circus pc font
-          The Colored Backdrops – we used plastic inexpensive tablecloths
-          The Signs – most were made from Poster Board and the Circus PC font.  You can get all the fonts we used HERE
-          The Prize Tickets – Kristen created these and we have provided a free PDF for you to use at your own Carnival.  Just copy the file to your hard drive and print on red card stock or scrapbook paper!  Get them HERE

The Games –We tried to do this as inexpensive as we could...
-          Bean Toss Game - We had a relative cut out circles to create our Wooden Bean Toss Game
-          Balloon Dart Game - We bought a small size Peg Board from Home Depot, spray painted it white and then attached balloons to it.
-          Sack Race – We picked these up at our local party supply store
-          Pin Drop Game – We used a plastic pretzel jar and clothespins
-          Ball Toss Game - Using a piece of cardboard we cut 3 circles into it.  We then placed our 3 baskets that we also found at the dollar in those circles.  The kids used tennis balls to try to get into the basket. 

The Extras
-          We created a Photo Booth Station by hanging black fabric over a clothesline.  We then hung props like a clown wig, clown nose with funny glasses, cowboy hat etc.  Just use misc items from your Halloween Costumes or visit the dollar store.   Each kid picked their favorite and then posed for their picture.  We had so much fun with this!
-          Our local dollar store was nice enough to give us 3 hangers that we used to hang all the carnival prizes off of.  We then created signs for 1 ticket, 2 tickets and 3 tickets prizes.  As the kids played the games they one prize tickets that they then cashed in for gifts. You can download our Tickets HERE and our Prize Ticket Signs HERE
-          Fortune Teller Table – We used J F Ferrule Font for our sign and this can be found at the same font site mentioned above.  We used black chenille (spelling) fabric to cover a table and the base of a round globe.  We also used battery operated Christmas lights and placed in the globe.  We found a head thing at the dollar store….
           

The Food – We stuck only to foods that you would find at a Carnival! 
-          Hot dogs off the grill, potato chip bags, Roasted Peanuts, Popcorn, Cotton Candy, Giant Lollipops and yes even Funnel Cake!  
-          Cotton Candy Cones -The cotton candy came in individual plastic containers so we decided to change the look of them by creating paper cone holders.  The kids helped making these by rolling construction paper and then placing sticker circle labels on them.
-          Funnel Cake – Oh my!  This was super easy and EVERYONE loved it!  We used a funnel cake kit like this one but you can certainly find funnel cake recipes!

These kids had their hands in with all the creativity too.  They created pop art signs of the food that we had.  It was really neat to see their eyes open wide when they finally saw their back yard redesigned in an entire carnival theme! 
 
Lauren:  “I love the cotton candy, the games were so fun and I helped make funnel cake and gave my dad one I made all by myself”

Matthew:  “it was all great, I want to do this every year, throwing the darts at the balloons was awesome, and I really like the bean bag toss.  We had a really great time”


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