Ideas to Try Out for Your Next School Carnival

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Do your children go to a preschool that follows the Early Years Foundation Stage or EYFS curriculum, the early childhood education framework followed by British curriculum schools? If you answered yes, you’d know the importance of play, both structured and unguided, to children’s physical, emotional and social development.

Even non-EYFS nursery schools (if they follow any evidence-based approach to learning) would know young learners respond well to play-based activities. To this end, schools organize activities and events that allow children to have fun while learning.

School Carnivals: Fun but Educational

School carnivals are at the top of the list of fun but educational events. Children enjoy them a lot. More importantly, schools can make it so their carnival has a purpose.

Depending on their theme and design, school carnivals can serve several functions, including:

Fundraising
Teaching children about different cultures and languages
Reinforcing children’s awareness of cultural differences and similarities
Giving children an opportunity to showcase their skills to a larger group and the community
Providing children with various opportunities to exercise their imagination and hone their organizational skills
Providing children with opportunities to communicate and collaborate with members of the larger school community (parents, local business owners, etc.)

School Carnival Ideas

School carnivals are events designed for children, so all food, games, and entertainment booths should be carefully selected with the children’s safety and well-being in mind. Here are a few ideas you can suggest to your children’s nursery school for the next school carnival:

Face Painting Booth

Draw large crowds of people, both young and the young-at-heart, with a booth for face painting. It’s an excellent way for children to experience and learn about art, design and more.

A face painting booth can be so much fun for children. For a few hours, children can live their dream personas (e.g., unicorn, fairy, cowboy). Children with pretty or wonderfully done face arts are likely to feel confident about their looks.

The act of deciding on the paint design, even the colors they want, can also help children develop their imagination and decision-making skills.

Freelance artists or makeup specialists can be hired for a few hours to paint designs on the children’s faces. As fun as this may be for the participants, this option can be costly. Since face painting also takes time, you’ll need to hire many artists or not everyone who wishes to get their faces painted can be accommodated.

An alternative would be to get older children as kiddie face painting assistants. The professionals can draw the lines, and kiddie assistants can fill them in with color and add embellishments like feathers and glitter. This can be an excellent learning opportunity for children, especially those who like art.

Furthermore, the children should also be allowed to apply face paint on themselves, family members and friends.

A little less labor-intensive option involves getting face stickers and other ready-to-stick designs. They can be purchased in bulk and are also quick and easy to apply, saving time while making more children smile.

Inflatable Park

Inflatables come in a wide variety of designs, sizes and colors. There are rental companies that have inflatables in the form of gigantic board games, racetracks, Velcro walls, obstacle courses or the highly popular Zorb ball.

Inflatables encourage children to have fun outdoors and stay active. The children can run around and enjoy the warm weather with their friends and peers.

An inflatable park also encourages interaction among participants. It teaches children how to communicate and collaborate with other children. It also gives them many opportunities to experience conflict so they can learn (or be taught) how to resolve it.

Silent Auction

Want to raise more funds for the school while getting local businesses to participate? Organize a silent auction!

Talk to local businesses if they can donate gift certificates for family meals, massages or beauty services. There can also be toys to entice children to join the auction.

Teachers and school staff may also volunteer or offer their services, and people can bid on them. The service could be an hour’s worth of tutoring for math or cooking meals for a week.

Once you have enough items to sell at auction, line them up on a long table. Include a piece of paper on each item that will let people see and add their bids. Announcements can be made throughout the day using a loudspeaker or a similar sound system to get more people to bid before the auction ends.

This activity will teach children commerce, particularly exchanging something of value (e.g., money) for something they want (the item). Additionally, they will learn how to approximate value.

Photo Booth

Children love a good photo booth. Get one that provides plenty of costumes and props, such as colorful hats, feather boas, fun shades, mustaches, or Polaroid frames.

School Production or Talent Show

The school can put together a program. There can be a school play and performances from various groups and individuals. There can even be a talent show.

Preparing for these events will be great learning experiences for children. They’ll have to memorize their lines, record voice overs or practice dance routines. Showcasing their skills on stage will also enable them to develop their self-esteem and confidence.

Carnival Food and Drinks

Cotton candy, popcorn, and soda are carnival snack staples, but feel free to change them to much healthier options. You can work with the restaurants in your community. This provides your children and guests with better food choices, while giving local businesses a chance to promote themselves.

Food booths need access to electricity. Keep this in mind when planning out the food and dining areas. You may also need to check if there are any spacing and planning requirements you must follow.

Preparing and consuming food and drinks can get messy. Consider designating the food booths and dining sections to covered and paved areas and provide many trash bins. These will make cleanup easier.

The children should also be given clean-up and pack-away roles and assignments post-carnival.

A Fun School Extravaganza

Planning and organizing a fun and successful school carnival require a lot of planning, time and effort, even for the best preschool in Dubai. It takes several months of working with teams or committees of teachers, staff and parents to pull off.

That said, the ideas and tips listed here can help seed your own school carnival plans to help engage your children.