Throwing a Carnival or Circus party in your backyard, a gymnasium or at home can be a lot of fun! You can set up stations with lots of different carnival games, pass out tickets that your guests can turn in for prizes at the end of the party and have lots of yummy carnival food like popcorn and cotton candy. Here are a few party printables that I designed for a carnival party, but the wording can easily be changed out for a circus party.
Rachael, one of my best clients, inspired me to finish making my carnival party
printable collection so that she could help out her sister who was planning a carnival birthday party for her child. Rachael is always up for new and fun ideas for party things so I sent her a few pictures of "popcorn" cupcakes that she could make to go with the carnival theme. She was so excited about making them...I think she made the cupcakes the same night that I sent her the idea. Here are a few pictures she sent me of the amazing "popcorn" cupcakes she made using mini marshmallows and Paper Perfection's cupcake wrapper. She also included some pictures of water bottles with the "Carnival Restorative Elixir" water bottle wrapper that comes with Paper Perfection's carnival party printable collection.
If you are interested in this party collection or one of the invitations contact Paper Perfection at jtanddolly@yahoo.com for pricing and details.
Here are a few "Carnival Game Ideas" in case you need a little inspiration for your carnival party:
Fish Out of Water:
Kids fish with a homemade pole: Tie a magnet to one end of a piece of string, and a yardstick to the other. The magnet catches construction paper fish fitted with metal paper clips. The challenge? Kids are blindfolded. They get three turns to win: three tickets for a shark, two for a red fish, one for a boot. For a splash of color, add blue pieces of paper "water."
Spray-Away Game:
Kids get one ticket for each ping-pong ball they knock off a golf tee with spray from a water gun. The target table: a white box decorated with blue construction paper waves and topped with red contact paper. We covered a strip of foam board with the same paper, inserted the golf tees into it, and secured it to the box with double-sided tape.
Clothespin Drop Game:
Kids need good aim, a steady arm, and nerves of steel to succeed at this game: dropping a clothespin into the mouth of a glass bottle. The prize: one ticket. At this or any of the activities, contestants can get back in line for another turn.
Ball-Toss Bonanza:
Tossing ping-pong balls into tumblers takes skill. Set up drinking glasses in a triangle formation on a low table. Inside each glass, place a cutout (easily made with a craft punch) in one of four colors: blue (worth four tickets), yellow (three), red (two), and white (one). A backboard (cardboard covered in paper) makes scoring easier; a ball can bounce off it into a glass.
• Photo Booth – either have a plywood painted with something cute and holes for their face or just a neat setting
• Bobbing for Apples
• Bean Bag Toss
• Hoopla – throw a ring around a bottle
• Horseshoes
• Miniature Golf
• Dart throw at
cork board with balloons
• Treasure Dig
• Ping Pong blow with Teams – Have kids blow ping pong balls using a straw across a table
• Pop Balloons – have kids sit on balloons to pop them…whoever pops the most wins. This could be a team race with chairs.
• Donut Race – tie hang donuts from a clothesline and have a contest to see who can eat one without using their hands the fastest
• Water Sponge Toss – have them throw a sponge at a plywood cutout with someone peaking through
• Muffin pan toss – toss pennies into muffin pan. Put numbers at the bottom of each tin and put felt in each tin to keep pennies from bouncing out.
• Knock it off – Use squirt guns to knock ping pong balls off the top of empty cola bottles. Put sand in bottles to keep them from blowing over.
• Penny Splash – put 3 different sizes of glasses in an aquarium filled with water and have them try to drop pennies into the cups.
• Tower of pennies – have 200 pennies and see which child can build the tallest tower of pennies. Keep a running total and the winner gets the pennies.
• Move the marbles…using chopsticks to move marbles from one bowl to another
• Fishing
• Face Painting &
Tattoos
• Flying Disk Toss – cover a box in wrapping paper and cut out holes. Have the children using the flying disk gun to get the disks into the holes
• Pick a Duck from a baby pool
• Bowling
• Tin Can Toss
• Basketball Shooting
• Rent a big bounce castle or other style of inflatable bounce house
Prize Table:
They can either get prizes at each game or they can collect tickets throughout the day. When the day is over, it's time for kids to empty their pockets of all those tickets. Each one is good for an item from one of the jars: a kazoo, yo-yo, ball, lollipop, gumball, or sunglasses. You can find prizes like these in party-supply stores or in the party section of supermarkets.
