Connecting Schools With Great Fundraising Ideas.

When planning a school Halloween carnival it’s 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.

Traditional Games

Just about every carnival should include the traditional, tried and true games that everyone enjoys. Some of these are kids games and others can be for older siblings and adults.

Dunking Booth – Who can resist dunking their teacher, classmate or school principal. You just need to prepare for the logistics of hosting the booth, making sure it works properly and is safe. If you don’t want to build one, check with local rental companies.

Duck pond – This is great for toddlers to grade 1. Fill a galvanized tub with water and colorful plastic ducks. Each duck has a number on the bottom that corresponds to a prize with that same number. The child picks up a duck from the pond and the person working the booth awards the prize. Easy and fun for little ones.

Darts – You cannot have a carnival without the traditional balloon dart game!

High Tech Games

Why not incorporate technology into your Halloween carnival?

Wii games – Have a Wii set up to play one of the sports like bowling. Have a time limit!

Wii tournament – Even better have a Wii tournament.  Each player signs up for a time slot ahead of time, paying an entry fee.  Players come back to play one another in the tournament rounds to determine who the best player is.

Guitar Hero or Garage Band – These are other very popular games that kids enjoy.

Jeopardy – This long standing TV show is available as an interactive game.  Classroom Jeopardy is customizable with your own questions or you can just use one of the Jeopardy software programs for your game system.

Big Event Games

Draw a crowd — plus media attention and publicity ahead of time — with an unusual game.

Super-sized board games – Take your regular, old fashioned board game and make it BIG.  How about putting together lots of Twister sheets for the “world’s largest Twister game?”  One group found success with a life size checkers game.

Sports tournaments – Hold a tournament at the same location of your school Halloween carnival.  Great for teens who are “too old” for kiddie games and costumes.  You could have several age brackets to make it fair.  Start filling up the entry level brackets and times before the day of the carnival so people know when to be there.

Inflatables – There’s so much more to inflatables than just a simple bounce house!  Now there are activities like obstacle courses, bungee competitions, and slides.  Check with your local party rental place to see what’s available near you.

More Game Ideas

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

A to Z Carnival Game List – Long list of many popular carnival games & variations

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

Carnival Savers – Has a lot of ideas for Halloween carnivals – fast & easy games, build it yourself game booths, popular foods, petting zoos and other fun activities

These school Halloween game ideas should get you started on the right path. With some creativity you can probably come up with many other activities that your kids will love!   Is there an unusual game that’s worked for your school in the past?  Let us know in the comment box below:

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School supplies– from pens to paper and curriculum materials–are essential to learning.  With the economy and budget cuts it has been tough for many schools to provide the supplies needed. The Tools for Teaching contest sponsored by Catalogs.com and eNasco.com can help teachers face this challenge. Participants have the opportunity to win up to $2,500 in school supplies for their classrooms.

All you have to do is go to the website www.catalogs.com/teachers and answer the question: “Why does your class deserve to win a gift certificate from eNasco.com and how will you put the school supplies to good use?”

This contest runs through runs through Wednesday, September 30, 2009.  Tell all the teachers you know to sign up for this contest.  They could win some great materials to outfit the class for the school year!

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The final honorable mention in the 2009 Top School Fundraisers Grant Award goes to Poinsettia Elementary School from Carlsbad, California. On behalf of the first through fifth graders, principal Steve Ahle submitted an excellent video requesting $2,000 for the purchase of new reading materials for their 500 students. This would include Leveled Readers sets for grades 1 and 2 and Newberry Award Winner novels for grades 3, 4 and 5.

The purchase of these materials will be used to help students go beyond reading at a basic level to achieve comprehension and application proficiency.

From the video, you will see that there is a strong commitment by the teachers and staff at Poinsettia to help children gain a life-long love of reading. There is also a thorough understanding that these early years are critical for a child. As Principal Ahle points out in the video, students who aren’t reading by the end of second grade are likely to be non-readers for their entire school careers.

Take a moment to watch their terrific video application, which is posted below. Thank you Poinsettia Elementary for sharing your needs with Top School Fundraisers. We wish you great success in achieving your very worthy goals!

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One of the greatest challenges non-profit organizations face today is keeping up with technological advancements. As we saw in the Obama campaign for president, a non-profit armed with the latest gadgets and gizmos can really accomplish something amazing. Of course, no computer program or instrument is ever going to replace human passion and drive, but the bells and whistles certainly make the job a little easier.

However, most of the non-profits out there are not as well funded as the Obama campaign, so creative means must be found to underwrite the expense of acquiring such technological tools.

In the first part of this article, I want to identify a handful of the items that are very popular right now in the educational realm, although many of these devices can be adapted for use in other non-profit environments, such as museums, senior centers, or community-based organizations. In the second part, I’ll look at some solutions for finding help funding these rather expensive items.

I saw first-hand how in-demand these items are, when we were going through the applications for the 2009 Top School Fundraiser educational grant program. Schools ranging from pre-kindergarten to twelfth grade, all across the United States and Canada, were invited to share with us a particular need in their school that was related to learning. (To find out more about the grant click here.)

Here are some of the ways we saw computer-based technology being introduced in classrooms. You’ll clearly see why educators would want these items. continue reading

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I am happy to announce the next award recipient is P.S. 168/M.S. 203 in Bronx, New York.  This school serves children from Kindergarten to 12th grade who have disabilities, such as autism, emotional disturbances and learning disabilities.   Many of these students also face other personal struggles as well.  95% of the students are on the free or reduced lunch program.

Teacher Nicole Sivilich who applied for the grant said, “Students with these disabilities are more likely to learn using computer technology over the standard lecture classroom teaching. We would like to see more of our students increase their social and learning skills using technolgy.”

Unfortunately this school is severely lacking in working computers.   High school grade students need computers for preparing for state tests, doing research and writing papers. Children in grades K-2 use a reading program called Preventing Academic Failure and practice basic reading concepts like sight words. While this $2000 grant may only provide a few computers, the school is also applying for other grants as well.

Teachers and administrators at Bronx schools have shown resourcefulness in other areas as well. 23% percent of schools in the Bronx are without a gym or safe area to have physical education.   Some schools are doing fundraising on their own to get a gym while others like PS 168 are using other available facilities.

The Sports & Arts in Schools Foundation (SASF), a non-profit based in Queens, which has received funding from the City Council to connect schools with nearby – and often underutilized – community centers. In the 2007-08 school year, the program served 2,000 students from 40 schools in Brooklyn and Queens. And in December, two Bronx schools – PS 168 on Morris Avenue and PS 754 on Jackson Avenue – enrolled. Students are bused to Bronxdale Community Center on Rosedale Avenue in Soundview, where they play basketball and other sports in what is a state of the art gymnasium.

From: Educators Seek New Ways to Put Physical Education on the Menu

Just like with the challenge of providing physical education and play time, Principal Rosa Nieves Greene and her staff are being resourceful to get the technology to aid student learning in the classroom.  Congratulations P.S. 168/M.S. 203; may you be encouraged in the great work you are doing to help children in your community!

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