Ideas Needed

[iloveVBS]

Everyone here always comes up with such creative ideas, I thought I would ask for your help and ideas! For our closing program, we usually have some carnival type games set up for the kids and their families and then have a Pot-Luck dinner (this year we may have a camp-fire cookout) and then close with the kids singing some of the songs. I could use some help with ideas for the Carnival Games. I try to keep the games theme related, but I can't seem to come up with much for this year. :confused: Ideas so far...

Feed the Bear - toss plastic food at cardboard bear cutout (with mouth opening)
Fishing - fill small wading pool with water and plastic (or maybe real?) goldfish, use net to scoop out (If we decide to use real, will provide baby food jars to keep them in)
Lucky Tent - fill tent with lots of balloons, scatter a few small prizes on floor, blindfold kids, go into tent, search for a prize

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!!!

[kidsmatter]

I have no idea what kind of resources you have available for your VBS, so I'll just throw out a few ideas and maybe something will work for you:
1. an archery or darts thing where they have to pop the balloon (different balloons worth different points/prizes)
2. "Swim in the lake" dunk tank with a few willing VBS "counselors" (or the director???) getting dunked
3. "Animal Hunt" - hide a bunch of toy wild animals (or pictures of wild animals) throughout the carnival area. Kids get a list of the animals on their carnival pass, and can hunt for the animals. When they spot one, they must write down where they saw it (But leave the animal in its' hiding place!). Prize awarded at the end of the day to the person/people who found the most.
4. Build-a-bug snacks - let kids build their own caterpillars, beetles, etc out of food items such as bananas, chocolate chips and peanut butter (apparently there is a non-allergenic kind for those have to watch for allergies). You'd want to have a few examples on display to give the kids an idea what to do. You should be able to find some ideas online.
5. Wordless Book Hiking Stick - I met some people last summer who go around to Community Fairs and set up a station where they hand out free miniature hockey sticks with a bracelet tied to the end of it. The cool thing is that the bracelet has the colors of the wordless book attached to the handle, and people listen as the meanings for the colors on the bracelet are explained to them. In this way, each person who gets a hockey stick gets to hear the Salvation message and is given an opportunity to ask questions and is invited to receive Jesus as their Savior.

Guess I should get back to work now. Happy Carnival-planning :)

[TrinityJen]

You both have some GREAT ideas. I am defiantly writing these down. Have you checked the Director's Guide for additional ideas?

[iloveVBS]

Thank you so much!
These are GREAT - keep 'em coming!!! :D

And yes, we are planning to use some of the ideas from the Director's Guide for our pre-registration event - some fun ideas there too!

[jamqueen]

If you want to go messy and "nickelodeon" type stunt thing, and you've got the campfire going, how about having your youth helpers see how high they can build a "s'mores tower"? No chocolate, just marshmallows (they'll have to be hot to be sticky!) and the graham crackers...who can build that tallest one in say, three minutes?
and of course part two is that they have a contest to see who can eat the tower first...
sloppy, messy and maybe a way to bring everyone to the campfire area easily for the closing program part!