How to Make Old-Time Carnival Games

Construct a classic "Prize Fishing" carnival game by sliding blue curtain panels onto a rope. Suspend the curtained rope between two upright, footed poles. Tie a 5-foot piece of string to one end of each of five dowels to create play fishing rods. Attach a wooden clothespin to the loose end of each string to create a fake hook. Instruct the players to "cast" their rods over the top of the blue curtain to play the "Prize Fishing" game. Booth attendees attach inexpensive carnival prizes to each clothespin hook tossed over the curtain, then tug on the line once the prize is secure as a signal for players to reel them in.

Assemble the simple "Ducks on the Water" old-time carnival game by filling a child's wading pool with water. Color-code rubber ducks by marking the bottom of each duck with one of three permanent marker colors. Mark 75 percent of the ducks with a red marker, 20 percent with a green marker and 5 percent with a blue marker. Sort a selection of prizes into three, color-coded categories -- put the least expensive prizes into the red category, more expensive prizes into the green category and the most expensive prizes into the blue category. Float the ducks in the wading pool, then instruct the players to pluck a single duck from the water. Each player then gets to pick a prize from the category that corresponds to the marking on the bottom of his duck.

Create a "Nickel in a Haystack" coin-search game by first spreading a tarp on the ground. Arrange hay bales around the perimeter of the tarp to hold it down and to create boundaries for the haystack pit. Fill the area inside the pit with loose hay or straw pulled from the bales; spread enough hay to hide the tarp from view without overflowing the borders. Mix a half roll of nickels, two rolls of pennies and one roll each of dimes and quarters into the loose hay. To play, several players climb into the haystack pit at a time to search through the hay for as many coins as they can find within a pre-set time limit of 2 minutes that ends at the ring of a timer. Players get to keep all the coins they collect within the time-frame -- any player who has found a nickel can trade that coin in for a prize.