Significance
School carnival games are typically held as fundraisers. These can be held by the entire school, or by a club or organization inside the school. Some examples could be a senior class running a carnival game day at the school to raise money to offset prom expenses. Elementary schools sometimes do this to help purchase equipment for the school, or to offset the expenses of field trips for students. Sometimes, carnival games are held as fundraisers for the band or sports teams at the school to raise money for equipment.
Types
School carnival games come in two different varieties: chance and skill. The games of chance include raffle tickets, wheels of chance games, scratch-off tickets and door prizes for attending the carnival. Some games of skill include throwing darts at balloons to pop them, dunking booths, tossing a ball into a bucket from various distances, penny tosses onto plates, and shooting a basketball through a hoop.
Considerations
School carnival games can be created by the group hosting the carnival games at the school, or they can contract out to a company experienced in providing carnival games to social events. The website Carnivalgames.net offers a variety of carnival games that can be purchased and shipped to the school through FedEx. The website Schoolcarnivalgames.com provides a list of companies that will allow you to rent these games, and even companies that will help you with planning your event and where to get prizes for the carnival games.
Benefits
School carnival games provide an entertaining way to raise money for the school or group within the school. Instead of going door to door asking for donations or selling items, students can offer entertainment. The chance to be entertained and win prizes when donating to a school organization can help make the donations more comfortable for those attending. They know that not only are they donating to a good cause, they are getting entertainment value for the money they are donating. Hosting the school carnival games also adds credibility to the fundraiser, as it will help people donating the money see that it is going to the school or the organization. This is not as easy to demonstrate when collecting donations door to door.
Warning
Make sure any games that you purchase to set up for your school carnival games are set up properly according to the instructions. Schools might also want to find an insurance provider to contact to cover the event in case any injuries would occur during the school carnival game event. It is advisable to choose age-appropriate games. As an example, a preschool would not want to have balloon popping games with sharp darts for the kids to play due to risk of injury. When organizing the school carnival game event, make sure you have plenty of volunteers to run the games and any concession stands that are set up.