Ultimate List of 17 DIY Carnival Game Ideas
Carnivals are a right of passage, especially for kids, and carnival games certainly make or break the experience. There are classics like throwing a ping pong ball into a fishbowl, but surely you’ve already thought of that and decided the fish deserve to live. So, if you’re planning a carnival for a school fundraiser, a birthday party, a business event, a church activity, or just for fun – you’re probably thinking, “now what?”
You’ve come to the right place! We are experts at fun around here – and carnival games surely fit the bill. That’s why we’ve compiled this free ultimate list of the 17 best carnival game ideas. These games are easy to create, insanely fun, and great for any carnival.
Read on to discover the perfect diy carnival games that you didn’t even know you needed.
Balloon Dart Carnival Game
Required: Balloons, thin sheet of plywood, tacks, and darts
Find volunteers to blow up several large bags of balloons. Set up a board on which you will attach blown up balloons with tacks or stapler. You should consider having cardboard angled off for walls and cardboard on the floor on play area, to prevent wild throws from damaging the room.
The throwing area should be about 10-12 feet from the board depending on the age and ability of participants. So different throwing areas are a good idea. You can choose to allow 2-3 three throws depending on your system for awarding this game. Be very careful not to allow anyone to throw while someone retrieves thrown darts or replaces broken balloons.
Baseball Strike Zone Carnival Game
Required: Plywood painted baseball game board, Fun Gripper Baseballs
For serious ball throwers, you can have something set up for them – but for those little ones, you might want to set up a separate game for them as well.
Make a baseball strike zone that will stand up. This can be made out of cardboard or plywood. Paint a background of a ball field and in the middle have a cut out where the ball thrower is to throw the ball threw.
Awards can be based on how many out of three of their throws make it through the hole.
Black Hole Bean Bag Toss Carnival Game
Required: cornhole board, 5″ Beanbags
Take a piece of plywood/foam board and cut a hole in it (to make a cornhole board). You’ll need one package of 5″ beanbags.
Paint the cutout into a space theme to make the hole a “black hole”, and decorate the room. You can add black lights with neon figures hanging from the ceiling. Try adding playing music in the background with space sounds.
The more added touches, the more interesting your carnival will be. Each player will be given 3 beanbags to throw through the black hole, if they get all three they win.
Bowling Carnival Game
Required: Marked off area, Bowling Set
Mark off an area where players will be rolling the ball. Set up the pins about ten to twelve feet away. Players that get a strike are the winners.
Bucket Bonanza Carnival Game
Required: Large coffee cans or small buckets (5-6), screws, 6-8ft board, ping-pong balls, and paint if desired
Attach empty coffee cans about 8-10 inches evenly apart on narrow board. They can be attached by running a short screw through the can into the board. The object of this game is to toss a ping-pong ball in each can one at a time without missing.
You can choose different locations for a player to toss from, depending on players’ ability. You can number and paint cans different colors prior to assembly.
(Note: If you use cans be sure to take a hammer to around all the cut opened edges. Pounding down the sharp edges will prevent anyone from getting cut while reaching into take out a ball. You can also apply thick tape around the cut edge for additional protection.)
Cake Walk Carnival Game
Required: Donated bake goods, tape for floor, music, and box of numbered tickets
Players: One for each square in the circle (usually 12 to 18)
Mark off on the walk area a circle with numbered squares and have corresponding tickets numbered.
Players are to start out standing on a square that is numbered, one person per square. Start playing music and have players walk on the numbers – kind of like musical chairs. When the music stops, so do the players, and each of them should be standing on a numbered square.
Once everyone has a number to stand on, pull out a numbered ticket. The player standing on the corresponding number wins a baked goody. This is a very popular game, so make sure that you have a lot of numbered squares. If no one is standing on one of the numbers pulled, pull out another number until someone wins.
Finger Nail Painting Carnival Game
Required: Nail polish, cotton swabs, nail polish remover
This is a great alternative to a classic face painting booth!
Set up a table to paint fingernails. Purchase cotton swabs, nail polish, and nail polish remover (maybe from the dollar store). Charge a fee for those that would like to have their fingernails done. Don’t forget to pick up white nail polish for those that would like French tipped nails.
Floating Duck Carnival Game
Required: Nail polish, cotton swabs, nail polish remover
Find a floating item that is cheap and small, possible at a dollar store and get about 15 -20 of them. Mark on the bottom of a few of them your award system. Fill a small wading pool or washtub and place them in. They get one try to pull out an object. If the bottom of their object is marked, they get a prize.
Kids love water!! Lay down plastic if this is done inside or in a classroom.
Golf Zone Carnival Game
Required: Plywood painted scenery board, Fun Gripper Golf Set
Make a putting background that will stand up. This can be made out of cardboard or plywood. Then paint a fun background on it. Cut one or more holes at the bottom for the players to putt through. The holes can be different sizes for different age levels or prize awards.
Players will stand at a marked off line to putt. Awards can be based on which hole the ball goes in. You can even have an area that will ring bells or blow a horn. You’ll probably want to have someone behind the board to return the golf balls.
Go To Jail Carnival Game
Required: A room, jail made out of something, helpers and warrants
Have a room that you can set up as a jail. You’ll need a sheriff and maybe a deputy to mind the jail while the sheriff goes off to arrest someone. You can make the jail out of cardboard boxes, or wood with chicken wire, just something easy to take down and store if you wish.
Carnival goers can pay to issue a warrant for someone’s arrest. This may involve that person also going with the sheriff to point out the person that is suppose to be sent to jail. Once that person is put into the jail, they have to serve so many minutes in jail or you can give them the option of bailing themselves out. You can even issue them prison clothes to wear.
Horse Race Carnival Game
Required: Board, tape, dice and movable items
Players: Up to six
Prepare a play area on a board, desktop, or table. Use removable tape or to mark off six columns on the board with a start and finish line. Each column should have 5-8 squares depending on how long you want the game to last.
Next, number each column. Find 6 movable play pieces that can fit in each square as they move across the board. Fun items could be small beanie babies or any other popular item. Consider that they’ll be touched by many players if used for a carnival game.
Have each player assigned to a game piece and numbered column. Now roll the dice. The player in the column that matches the number rolled, gets to move his piece one square down the track. The first player to move his piece to the finish line is the winner.
Hula Toss Carnival Game
Required: Board, tape, dice and movable items
Players: Up to six
The hula toss game is a fun twist to the classic ring toss game.
Hang hula hoops from the ceiling by ropes and have players throw small footballs or flying discs threw the hula hoops. You can mark off throwing levels for various ages. For the older participants you can even have the hula hoop swing back and forth as a moving target.
Knock Down Arcade Carnival Game
Required: 2 saw horses, one 2X4 piece of lumber, hinges, Fun Gripper Bean Bags or Fun Gripper Baseballs, paint and blocks of wood
This one requires quite a bit of prep but is so cool!
Design 6 to 8 blocks of wood cut outs that will be mounted on one side of the narrow end of the 2X4 with light weight hinges. Use light weight wood that knocks over easily and you can shorten the length of the 2X4 if desired. Make them in different shapes, colors or design.
Find a willing artist in your group that will make it look attractive. You can even have the 2X4 painted with a theme that goes with the blocks.
Mount the blocks with hinges at 45 degrees so that they stay on top of the board and can fall backward once hit with a ball or bean bag. Give participants three balls to knock down the blocks from a designated distance.
By R. Scheel, Fun-Attic, Inc.
Ping Pong Target Carnival Game
Required: Plastic pop bottles, water, water guns, and ping-pong balls
You can play this game as teams or just individual competitions can be set up. Set up your teams; place all the same sized plastic bottles on an outdoor table and on top of each bottle place one ping-pong ball.
Give each team a water gun full of water and hopefully they all look or work the same. Have the teams line up behind the first player. They should be about 5-8 feet away from the target depending on age group.
When signaled, the first team member will try to knock the ping-pong ball off the bottle. Once they have completed that task, they will hand the gun to next player and then replace the ball back onto the bottle. The next player will do the same, and the first team done is the winner.
Sucker Tree Carnival Game
Required: Suckers, foam cones
Create a “sucker tree” by impaling the stick part of the sucker into a foam cone.
This easy game is simple – each participant pulls a single lollipop out of the tree. If their sucker is marked on the bottom, they get to keep it!
Tic Tac Toss Carnival Game
Required: 5″ Beanbags, tape
This game is, essentially, a large game of Tic Tac Toe that requires throwing precision.
The play area is very easy to make and set up. Lay down tape on carpet or hard floor to create a tic tac toe board. Give players 4 bean bags to try to complete three in a row.
Tape down a throwing line for younger players about 5 feet away and for older players about 6 feet away.
Two players compete against each other at a time. They take turns throwing their bean bags until one gets three-in-a-row, or they both run out of bean bags. Winner (if any) gets a prize!
Treasure Chest Carnival Game
Required: medium-sized container, bird seed, pennies
Fill a medium-sized container with birdseed and place 10-15 pennies within the seed. Allow the participants 1 minute (60 seconds) to find as many pennies within the time frame. Award players based on the total amount of pennies they have found.
You can have them close their eyes to complicate the game if need be. You may also reduce the amount of time for older players.
Have Fun?
We’d love to hear your experiences with these easy carnival games – leave us a comment or email! We hope you had a blast.
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