Connecting Schools With Great Fundraising Ideas.

Coastal Grove Charter School held their Medieval Festival of Courage of Saturday, October 13th at the Manila Community Center in Arcata, California. The festival invites several local schools to participate in the event, but it is a fundraiser for the Charter school.

Children and adults dressed in medieval costumes. They were entertained by traditional medieval music and games from that time. Instruments included acoustic guitar, harp, flute, bagpipes, penny whistles and also traditional medieval songs.

Vendors at the medieval festival offered handmade crafts, herbs and weapons that were several centuries in age. The festival was both fun and very educational.

The Coastal Grove Charter School is a public charter school using Waldorf curriculum. The Waldorf curriculum is based on the philosophy of Rudolf Steiner.

Source: The Eureka Reporter

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Halloween candy treats are a must have for any school halloween carnival. Parents also need to have candy on hand for trick or treaters who come by the house. Some families sponsor parties on Halloween night instead of or in addition to kids going door to door and candy is needed there too.

So what kind of candies are available for Halloween? You can pick up mini candy bars or other candy at the grocery store. But if you plan ahead a bit you can order candy in bulk online. You can also get more unusual candy treats than you would get if you just went to the local store.

Oriental Trading Company - Lots of Variety, Great Prices

Oriental Trading Company has some of the best selections online of Halloween candy They have a lot of Halloween novelty candies like gummy teeth, bubble gum shaped like pumpkins, Halloween PEZ dispensers, and Halloween printed jelly beans like the ones shown here. You’ll make a big impression with those kind of candy treats!

If you’d like to give out traditional mini chocolate bars, smarties or other candy, they have that in bulk. You’ll find great prices on all the Halloween bulk candy.

Visit Oriental Trading Company to browse their selection and to get free shipping, just enter code RLS100 at checkout.

Halloween Shaped Lollipops - a Tasty Treat

Halloween shaped lollipops are fun treats for your school kids. They can be used as a fundraiser, sold at a carnival booth or given out free as treats. They are just 25 cents each you decide!

This photo just shows three pops, but they really come in lots of flavors: Black Cherry, Blue Raspberry, Bubble Gum, Caramel Apple, Cherry Snow, Cotton Candy, Grape Delight, Green Apple, Juicy Orange, Strawberry Shake, Watermelon Slice, and Wild Cherry. There’s lots of other shapes and flavors of gourmet pops available. You can view all the available pops and even order online here … or Call 1-866-249-0089 for more info.

Healthier Treats - Sugar Free and/or Organic

An alternative to sugary snacks are sugar free and organic candies. Serendipity Sugar Free™ comes in a 1 lb. bulk bag with approximately 96 pieces per bag. They come in a wide variety of flavors. Since they are sugar free, these candies are just 12 calories per piece! Plus great for kids with allergies, they are vegetarian, Kosher, with no gluten, no trans fats, no Nuts, no dairy ingredients and no soy!

Organic Naturepops come in modern, cool flavors like Citrus Blast and Chocolate. Ingredients include organic lime extract, organic orange extract and vegetable colors. The lollipops have organic evaporated cane juice, which is a natural form of sugar.

These sugar free and organic candies are available at Simon Candy Shop.

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When planning a school Halloween carnival it’s real important to include lots of fun games for the kids to play. Playing games, competitions and winning prizes make the event so much fun for the students.

Many times each grade or class will have their own game booth. The game idea that your group picks should be age appropriate. There are a wide variety of game ideas that are good for each age level.

There are some games that students will expect to see each year, such as the bean bag toss. Be sure to include the most popular games that your school carnival had last year. Students also like to find something new and different. So finding a few unique, fun Halloween carnival games will bring some new excitement to your event.

Here are several great websites that have ideas to help you create fun carnival games:

Carnival Midway Games - Long list of many popular carnival games & variations

Fun Attic Games - Dart games, parachutes and more

American Carnival Mart- Games, prizes and do-it-yourself game ideas

Dickey & Dickey Rides - Inflatables and other games Provides rentals in Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana and Iowa.

Game Rental 1-2-3 - Quite a few carnival game ideas

Party Supply Factory - Golf putting greens, basketball and cliff hanger bean bag game

Muscular Dystrophy Association Carnival Game Ideas - Carnivals are held for MDA fundraisers. They offer some ideas that may be good for your school too.

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Are you looking for supplies for your school Halloween carnival? Every carnival has a lot of supplies that are needed. One of the most important things to get are prizes for the games. Little toys, trinkets, candy and stuffed animals all make good prizes. Sometimes students can trade in a couple of small prizes for a bigger prize. This keeps them going at the game, having fun while they work to get the big prize.

There are several places online where you can get prizes for your school Halloween carnival. Here are a few that I like best:

Everything Elementary Store has a lot of carnival supplies
Pinatas.com has great pinatas plus lots of party supplies
Oriental Trading Company has all kinds of prizes at great prices

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The East End Arts Council created a life-size checkers tournament with a partnership with The Urban League and the Council for Unity. The checkers tournament took place at the 11th Annual Community Mosaic Street Painting Festival on Sunday, May 27th 2007. The event was free to the public and for children to participate in. Funds were raised through sponsorship by North Fork, NY area businesses including Bethpage Federal Credit Union, Suffolk County, Knapp-Swezey Foundation, Riverhead Free Library, Astoria Federal Savings, Suffolk County National Bank, Citi Smith Barney and Riverhead Business Improvement. Funds raised went to scholarships for their fine arts programs for students.

The checkers tournament took place from 12:00 p.m. through 3:00 p.m. It was a traditional tournament with the winners playing the other winners. Scores of checkers games were posted for everyone to see who was winning. First, second and third place winners were awarded prizes donated by popular local attractions including The Long Island Ducks, Splish Splash Water Park and Selden Batting and Go-Karting. The event was quite popular and it will be done again next year at the next Community Mosaic Street Painting Festival.

Visit the East End Arts Council website for more information and photos about this event.

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Why are carnivals so popular? Because they are just plain FUN!

Here’s what one blogger, Brandy, said about her kids school spring carnival:

The boys had the first Spring Carnival at their school yesterday. Hopefully the school started an annual FUN fundraiser. They really enjoyed themselves. They got to play games, see their friends, and even see their cousin. I have a few pictures (couldn’t hardly take any because I was bombared with going to play the games, prizes, and keeping up with Nathan). Each grade level made a basket of a certain theme, for a silent auction of stuff that the kids donated. Jordan’s class did a baby basket and Austin’s class did a garden basket. I heard that the scrap book basket’s highest bid was $1,200 but not sure how true that is.

I agree 100% — School carnivals are just plain fun! Kids like all the games, getting to play them and winning prizes of course! Most school carnivals have games for every age level so all the kids can join in the fun. Plus it is good for there to be some fun things for parents like auctions which are also fundraisers.

Check out our school carnival ideas page for school carnival games and supplies.

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Many school across the country held fall festivals this year. But one Georgia school had quite an unusual fall festival theme, focusing on Chinese culture.

[Principal] Johnson toured Beijing and the Guangxi Province of China last summer as a part of the College Board’s competitive initiative in which Georgia educators learned about the culture in order to incorporate it into their school environments.

While in China, she said she learned many things that were in use on Friday at the schools fall festival fundraiser.

She pointed out on-going activities throughout the school and within the fall festival, which included Chinese games and China-oriented entertainment  martial arts demonstrations, a Chinese dance by the Atlanta Festival Ballet Company, and songs from the school’s chorus.

Source: Henry Daily Herald

How can your school add a new dimension to its festival fundraiser or carnival? A cultural theme, arts focus, contest, etc. The possibilities are endless. Adding some unusual twists can add new excitement to a fundraiser that may become old hat. Plus adding an educational aspect as this school did adds additional value.

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