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November 18, 2013 8:01 PM

I'm looking for fundraiser carnival game ideas for middle school kids (ages 11-14). The carnival will be held in the spring, with a Color Festival theme. We will have a color run; we're looking for booth games, as well. These kids have been playing the ring toss/ cakewalk/ bouncy castle circuit for years, so we're looking to make it more appealing to them now that they're older. Some popular ideas so far have been a football toss and outdoor twister. Do you have more? [Gotta shoot you down on the teacher pie-tossing/ dunking booth ideas, though. I'd like to keep enforcing respect for the teachers, especially since their average age is about 24.]
posted by Jane Austen to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (11 answers total)

How about Boot throwing, or a coconut shy?
posted by HoraceH at 8:07 PM on November 18, 2013

These were popular carnival games at an event I was at recently:

1. Closed safety pins buried in a punch bowl of uncooked rice; while blindfolded, pull out as many pins as you can in one minute, one at a time. No rice with the pins. You could use some other similar object if you were worried about the pins coming open and poking people (they didn't when I played it). Pick a few number targets to aim for--eg anyone who pulls out 20-24 gets prize X, 25-29 gets prize Y, over 30 gets Z, etc.

2. Big bowl of hard shelled candies like M & Ms or Skittles that come in 5 different colours. 5 small dishes or cups into which you have to sort the items by colour, one at a time. Set a buzzer to go off after 1 minute.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 8:28 PM on November 18, 2013

Best answer: When I was 13 or 14 I won a milk drinking contest at my school. I (on the small side) beat a bunch of big grade thirteen guys. I am 38 now and (obviously) still like to boast about this, so I think your event must have some sort of drinking or eating contest.

Is there a place to set up a slackline?

Would you be able to get away with some sort of gambling...? A Vegas-themed booth, with the chips redeemable for candy?
posted by kmennie at 8:30 PM on November 18, 2013 [1 favorite]

At our school carnival a few years ago, there was great success with a couple of caricature/portrait booths. A few artistic, middle school age kids were flattered to be selected by the art teacher for this task. The artist-kids were seated a couple at a table, and were approached in pretty good droves by their classmates (and parents and teachers) who paid in tickets to get their (somewhat anime-cartoony) likeness drawn.
posted by third rail at 8:51 PM on November 18, 2013

How about a doughnut eating contest? Three people step up to three doughnuts hanging down on string. The contestants can't use their hands to eat their doughnut. Whoever finishes first wins.

By the way, you can include the teachers here. They did this at my school when I was young and the school had some anniversary celebrations. It was a lot of fun. The teachers were the contestants and I think those who won got some perks for their class, or at least bragging rights. Since they're competing against each other, there's no element of disrespect to/from students and the kids get an oportunity to cheer for their teachers.
posted by CrazyLemonade at 9:14 PM on November 18, 2013

Face painting? If you have artsy kids you could even get some of them to do the painting. I used to face paint for a community fair, and we would make a demo board ahead of time (hearts, stars, kitty faces, etc) so the kids would pick from that since none of us were super-artsy.

In fact, I asked about face painting in an AskMe a few years ago.
posted by radioamy at 9:20 PM on November 18, 2013

A photo booth stocked with some silly hats/mustaches/props etc. would be HUGE with my middle schoolers. Either have a volunteer running a laptop + photo printer inside a tent or see what prices are for rentals in your area.
posted by charmedimsure at 9:34 PM on November 18, 2013 [1 favorite]

Make a giant Plinko board.
posted by jeffamaphone at 9:34 PM on November 18, 2013 [1 favorite]

My kids elementary school did a variation on the carnival game where you throw beanbags at toys to knock them down and win something. It was the exact same game, except you threw beanbag "eggs" at toy pigs on collapsible rickety structures. There might have been some pictures of birds around too... It was easily the most popular booth and had a line a mile long all day.
posted by Joh at 9:39 PM on November 18, 2013

Bobbing for apples is a classic.
posted by rhizome at 11:22 PM on November 18, 2013

When I was in middle school we set up two Atari 2600s with the Pac-Man game that had just been released. (Yeah, this was a few years ago). The high score for the day won a jar of tokens to Aladdin's Castle. We charged a quarter per game, had a line across the cafeteria all day, and probably set a fund raising record that was never topped. Maybe something similar with modern games, or hell go retro and use a 2600 emulator.

Another idea would be corn hole. It seems to be quite popular these days.
posted by COD at 2:45 PM on November 20, 2013