Back to school time may be here for your family, or else it is fast approaching.
And while summer is winding down, there is still plenty of warm weather ahead, making it hard for kids to make the back to school transition.
Either way, an end of summer celebration is a great way to give the kids a concrete way to say goodbye for another year – and give them a little more summer fun to look forward to.
County fairs and carnivals go hand-in-hand with summertime, so why not make your own? These fun ideas are all easy and inexpensive and the best part is, the kids can do most of the work themselves.
Of course, a carnival has to have games, and here are a few of our favorites that can all be made with items you have on hand at home or a quick trip to your local dollar store.
And while you’re there, pick up some small items to use as prizes – sidewalk chalk, pencils, stickers, and small bouncy balls come in multi-packs, and the kids love them.
Duck pond
Fill your kids’ backyard wading pool with water and grab a few inexpensive rubber ducks or toy animals made for bathtime at the dollar store. Write a number on the bottom of each that matches a corresponding prize and you’ve got your own carnival duck pond.
Tossing games
A few days before your planned backyard carnival, save the cans from vegetables, soups, and sauces. Mom or Dad can clean them out and check for sharp edges and then pass them off to the kids to paint or decorate with stickers or colored tape to make fun patterns.
Line them up or stack them on carnival day, give the kids a small ball or beanbags to throw, and that’s all there is to it! You can also easily make your own beanbag toss by cutting shapes out of a piece of foam board and letting the kids decorate it however they like.
And don’t worry if you don’t have beanbags laying around. Kids can make them by scooping some dried beans into ziploc bags – just keep an eye on the little ones so they don’t end up opening up the bags.
An easy tossing game can also be made by purchasing a few sand buckets and allowing little ones to toss in beanbags or balls. You can number the buckets and place them different distances away, awarding a prize for the perfect toss!
Pool noodle games
So many things can be done with pool noodles, and they are typically inexpensive, especially at the end of the summer.
They can be formed into circles with the ends secured with strong tape. Place a few on the ground to create a mini obstacle course where the kids jump into the pool noodle hoops, just like athletes do — but much easier than using tires.
These pool noodle circles can also be hung from tree branches for another fun toss game where the kiddos try to get a football or beanbag through the hoop. Just like the other toss games, try different distances or award different prizes for a specific color of hoop.
Cut a pool noodle in half lengthwise and place on an incline in the yard to make a great track for rolling small cars or golf balls. Two kids can start at the same time and see whose ball gets to the bottom first.
Or cut the noodles across into shorter pieces and place them in a big laundry basket to make a fun game for the little ones. They can stack the noodle pieces to see how high they can go before toppling, or the pieces can be strung on a piece of rope or thin PVC pipe – it’s easy and fun and small children can practice hand-eye coordination.
Most of these games can also be played with hula hoops also purchased at the dollar store, or you can hold a hula hooping contest to see who can keep it going the longest with a prize awarded to the winner.
Guessing games
This can be adapted for all ages depending on what you fill your “guessing jar” with. Small candies or goldfish crackers can be used for older kids and larger items like apples or oranges can be placed in a container for the little ones.
Give everyone a piece of paper to write their guess on and at the end of the carnival, all the kids can help count out the items in each jar with a prize for whoever has the closest guess.
Mom and Dad can also gather several items from the dollar store to place in a large basket. Kids can be blindfolded and try to guess the objects they pick up. Try to find objects with interesting shapes like plastic animal toys to make it a little more difficult.
Don’t forget the food!
What’s a carnival without all that great food? You don’t have to go so far as to serve fried twinkies, but some carnival favorites like cotton candy and popcorn are always a hit.
Kids can even decorate a large cardboard box to make their own concession stand or ticket booth. Colorful cartons or bags from the party store can be used to place small portions of these fun snacks in for “sale” at their stand.
Another fun DIY project that can be used as a concession, prize, or guessing game is a lollipop tree. Grab a foam cone at a craft store and fill it with lollipops for “sale” or for use at one of the game stations where each child can take a lollipop home as one of their prizes.
Get creative
There are so many ideas that can be adapted for a backyard carnival. Do you have a budding artist? Let them run a face painting booth.
Does your child have a skill they can use to give a performance? Each child can pick something they’d like to do and put on a show or walk around the “carnival grounds” as a traveling performer.
They can be a magician, clown, juggler, or mime for the day (that one might be fun for parents!). You can take it up a notch by finding or making a fun costume for their performance – old Halloween costume pieces or Dad’s oversized clothing work great.
You can even make the kids their own stilts by drilling a hole on either side of the bottom of a small (use heavy plastic) bucket, running a long piece of thin rope or twine through and tying it off at a length that is about the distance between your child’s feet and mid-torso. Make two of these per child and they can walk around on their “stilts.”
If your carnival goes into the evening, there are ways these fun games can be adapted with glow paint, glow sticks, and light up toys.
The possibilities really are endless, and the kids will have just as much fun preparing for their carnival as they will taking part in it. Invite the neighborhood kids or some of the children who may be in your child’s class for the school year. It’s a great way for them to get to know one another before school starts.
We hope you and the kids enjoy your backyard carnival and the special memories it will create. You’ll be the hit of the neighborhood, and it just might become a tradition you want to repeat every summer!
(h/t Mommy Underground)