Help with fall festival?

Question

We have an annual fall festival at my daycare. i am in charge of planning this year. we are a small christian daycare and any ideas would be great. We usually sell tickets but were thinking of just doing a fee at the door. don't know if that is a good idea. let me know and any ideas on activities

Answer 1

I am a retired elem teacher and we used to have a person wear a cape and friendly costume and the long cape had many many pockets on the inside and when the child came up to the person who was wandering around the festival, the child gave this person a ticket and then the person opened wide the cape and the child got to pick anything out of any pocket, The kids seemed to love this.

Answer 2

Our school doesn't have a fall festival but we have an end of the year party. All the teachers dress according to the theme, which has been Hawaii, Cowboy, Jungle etc. Then we had games and the children could win small prizes. We had face painting one year and the next we had tattoos. Popcorn, cotton candy and pizza were served. The children who attends our school do not pay for entrance. The parents and other children do. That helps pay for the prizes and is a fund raiser for the school. The parent group help to put it on.

Answer 3

at the YMA we always had a fall festival and it was free of charge.  each teacher hosted a game in her room.  the kids would come dressed in costume (if it was halloween based.  if not, but just fall, they brought a canned good to donate) and start in the kitchen where i (the director) would be hosting a bag decoraging.  we had lunch sized bags (white) with all kinds of halloween/fall stamps and different colored stamp pads and crayons/markers.  each child would decorate their bag and then go room to room to play a game in each room.  everyone always won and it was always candy they'd put in their bag (to take home).  the kids and the parents loved it and always look forward to every year.  sadly, now that i've retired they don't do it anymore.  games are easy:

facepainting (while the kids are waiting their turn, give them seasonal coloring sheets to keep them busy)

grand prize game (put tape on the floor and the child stands behind the tape.  you place a small bowl just in front of them and they toss a piece of candy into the bowl.  then you place a slightly larger bowl next in line and they repeat.  then another bowl, etc.  they get to keep what candy they get into each bowl)

ghost bingo (i made a game in excel that is just like bingo.  but instead of bingo at the top, i used ghost.  and to make it so every age can do it, instead of numbers down, i used pictures from clipart that represented the season.  we used smarties to cover the pictures).

cookie walk (same as musical chairs but instead of chairs there are pictures of 4 cookies on the floor and 8 blanks.  when the music stops you must stand on a cookie.  once you get a cookie for your bag, you are out so someone else can win)

cookie decorating (store bought sugar cookies, frosting and decorations.  each child decorates a cookie.  you can serve warm apple juice with it)

treasure hunt (in your sand table, hide all kinds of small trinkets for the kids to hunt.  once you find one for your bag, you are out.)

you can easily make this any season you want.  we always did halloween and that started off our canned good drive for thanksgiving.  then we had a 'thanks for giving' party in november.

hope this helps.