Hobbies And Interests
Race Track
Make an easy-to-build variation of the popular carnival race game, where a token (usually a horse) advances along a race track according to the player's skill at rolling a ball into holes with different point values. Instead of the Skee-Ball approach, use dice, and instead of horses, use miniature toy cars (or other vehicles of your choice). Paint a slab of plywood and divide it into six lanes, then divide each lane into 12 sections. Have players take turns rolling a die to determine how far their pieces move. For added challenge, require the winner to hit the 12-spot exactly; for example, if a player rolls a six on the first turn and a five on the second, he would have to roll a one to win.
Spelling Bee
Host miniature spelling bees to give students a chance at prizes for showing off their intellectual skill. Have teachers come up with lists of age-appropriate words, then sort those lists into easy, moderate and challenging words.
Have the booth attendant ask players which grade they attend, then, according to their age, ask the player to spell words from the easy list. Award a small prize for five consecutive words spelled correctly. Offer the player a chance to gamble the prize and keep playing; three consecutive correct moderate-difficulty words earns them a medium-sized prize. Then offer yet another chance to gamble the prize and keep playing; one correct challenging word merits a large prize.
Decorate the booth with multicolored letters, stuffed-animal bees and construction paper honeycombs and beehives.
Balloon Animals
Hire a clown or train someone in your organization to tie balloon animals. The carnival-planning experts at Super Cool Stuff recommend charging 25 cents (or the ticket equivalent) for each balloon.
Duck Pond
Buy dozens of rubber ducks, and write a prize level (small, medium and large) on their bottoms in black permanent marker. Set the ducks afloat in a shallow tub and sell players the ability to pick one duck. Award prizes accordingly.
Balloon Stomp
Inflate a large number of balloons and insert a prize slip in each. Sell them at the booth and have players stomp on them to reveal what the prize slip says. This game lends itself to the "everybody wins" method; even a consolation prize will place you firmly in your profit margin. Always have desirable prizes at stake; it will keep players coming back.
Karaoke Booth
Borrow a karaoke machine from someone in your organization, or use an online karaoke service to allow students, parents and teachers to sing age-appropriate songs. This can be a just-for-fun booth, or you can award special prizes (even ultra-low-cost ones such as certificates) for each performance. To help those who are a bit shy about singing in public, have the school music teacher run the booth and offer to sing songs as duets.