10 Unique Carnival Booths that Kids & PTO Groups LOVE!
Let's be honest, kids don't spend all year dreaming about standing in long lines for the same old carnival games! The best school carnival booths are the ones that make students laugh, get them moving, and have them saying, "Can we do that again?" Fun, unique carnival activities keep families at your event longer, make volunteers look like superheroes, and give everyone something to talk about on Monday morning. Whether you are planning a School Carnival, PTO fundraiser, Family Fun Night, or School Festival, a little creativity goes a long way toward making your school event the one everyone remembers.
The best carnival booth activities are:
- Interactive and Hands On
- Easy for PTO/PTA volunteers to manage
- Fun for multiple age groups
- Affordable to operate
- Fast enough to keep the lines moving
- Memorable enough that students want to come back!
10) Mystery Box Touch Challenge: Can you guess what is inside?
A hands on guessing game where kids use only their sense of touch to identify hidden objects. Cut hand sized holes into decorated boxes and place mystery items inside. Without looking, reach in, feel the object and guess what it is. Award a prize for every correct answer – or simply enjoy the fun of the hilarious guesses. Use your old amazon boxes. Some ideas for items: cooked spaghetti, feathers, dried beans, cotton balls, sponges, pinecones. For a Fall festival , use pumpkins, gourds, or corn husks. Guaranteed to get lots of laughs!
9) Paper Airplane Carnival Station
Ready for a carnival booth that’s inexpensive and packed with friendly competition? A Paper Airplane Flight Challenge is a perfect activity for Elementary and Middle School students. Set up a folding station with colorful paper, markers, stickers, and stamps so kids can design/decorate their own airplanes. Then you can have groups line up to see which plane will go the farthest. Another competition would be to have a landing area. Decorate a landing bullseye. If your plane lands on the square, you win a prize.
#8) Light Up the Night – Glow In the Dark Carnival Activity
Transform a classroom or tent with fluorescent streamers, balloons, and neon posters, then use black lights to make everything glow. Hand each participant a glow bracelet before they enter to add to the excitement. Have music playing to make it a dance party or have a glow-in-the-dark activity in the room. Examples: Glow Ring Toss, Neon bowling.
#7) Lego Speed Build Challenge
Players have just 60 seconds to finish a surprise building mission before the timer buzzes. Every round is different, making it a carnival booth kids will want to visit again & again.
- Give participants a small pile of bricks and challenge them to build the tallest tower, something that starts with the letter “B”, an animal, a vehicle…A twist: make them use only 1 hand. Line up about 6-8 carnival goers at a time on long tables.
#6) Build Your Own Bookmark Carnival Booth
An activity that lets kids express their creativity. This booth appeals to schools because it is fun & encourages reading.
Setup tables with colorful markers, crayons, stickers, stamps, ribbons, decorative punches. Add school colors, inspirational quotes or their names. Take your bookmark station to the next level with Scratch Art bookmarks from Coloredsand.com. Kids simply use the stylus to scratch the coating to reveal vibrant rainbow colors hidden underneath. Mess-free activity with no drying time. It’s a fun keepsake that kids will use long after the carnival. A great fit for carnivals, literacy nights, library events, and PTO fundraisers.
#5) Carnival Emoji Photo Hunt
An easy to run activity that combines a scavenger hunt, photo challenge, and friendly competition. Before the carnival, hide large printed out emoji signs throughout the school event area. Give each participant an Emoji Hunt card with the emojis they need to find during the carnival. The students check off each emoji or snap a selfie with it. Once they complete the hunt, they return to the booth to receive a prize. This is low cost, creates fun memories, and encourages movement around the carnival.
#4) Cake Walk Alternative
The Cake Walk has been a school carnival favorite for generations, but if you’re looking for something new, these alternatives offer a fun twist!
-Gift Card Walk (Get donations from local business like free pizza, frozen yogurt, or Bowling Games)
-Cookie Walk or Donut Dash
-Book Walk
-Candy Walk (Have a variety of candy bars, boxes of fun treats, etc.)
#3) Selfie Carnival Booth – Strike a Pose
Every great school event deserves a place where families can capture the fun! A Selfie Carnival Booth is one of the easiest carnival stations for your PTO or PTA to set up. Create a colorful backdrop using balloons, streamers, school colors, and maybe your school mascot. Add fun lighting, oversized decorations, and themed sighns to make every picture Instagram-worthy.
Fun Photo Props: (Set up a basket with props)
Oversized sunglasses, wigs, funny hats, crowns, tiaras, inflatable guitars, super hero capes, animal ears, cowboy hats, foam fingers, feather boas, microphone, princess wands, cheerleader pom poms, sports balls & jerseys, etc.Funny Sign Ideas for the students to hold:
“Best Day Ever”, “I Love My School”, “Our Principal Rocks”, “PTO Super Fan”, “Teachers Love Me”, “MVP”
#2) Soak a Teacher (For warm months)
Dunk Tanks are expensive to rent and challenging for students to hit the target. Plus, the PTO volunteers have to chase those balls all over the place. Students purchase water balloons, wet sponges, or super soaker water guns to aim at a favorite teacher, principal, or coach. The water guns or the sponges can be used over and over without any cleanup after the carnival. Soaking the teachers is a crowd favorite!
#1) Sand Art Carnival Creation Station
Unlike many carnival games that last less than a minute. Sand Art gives children time to be creative while making something that they take home to proudly remember their school event. For more than 27 years Coloredsand.com has supplied schools, PTOs, churches, carnivals, festivals, resorts, camps, fundraisers, and non-pofit groups with sand art supplies made in the USA.
Setup couldn’t be easier. Pour each color of sand in a bowl. Place a spoon in each color. Let kids layer their favorite colors into bottles. You can even personalize the bottles with the school’s name, event name, and the year on small labels. Sand Art is an activity loved by all ages.
Activities where students can create something often becomes the biggest attractions at school carnivals because they provide both entertainment and a keepsake!