20 Interesting Carnival Games for Kids

A kid’s carnival party should spell fun in capital letters. And nothing spells fun like games, so have lots of them! You can grease your creative elbow to explore a range of ideas, from putting up some game stalls where the kids may go and play as per their desire and pace. Or you can create DIY carnival games for kids with simple prizes. You can also choose and click to buy games online. So, whether you choose homemade games or simple ideas to purchase, the bottom line remains that you can easily organise memorable and fun carnival games for kids to enjoy!

10 Exciting Games for Your Child’s Carnival Party

Some thrilling games for your child’s carnival party can include the following:

1. Cola Ring Toss

This delightful game can be one of the outdoor carnival activities which are sure to take your party’s fun quotient to dizzy heights.

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What You Will Need

• Plastic cola bottles
• Small rack rings meant for tossing
• 2-litre bottles of cola and soda
• A solid table

How to Play

• Arrange three dozen plastic cola bottles on the table.
• Provide each player with five rings so they may try their hand at tossing the rings around the cola bottles.
• If a player fruitfully tosses the ring, he wins a 2-litre cola or soda bottle.
• If he successfully tosses more than once, he has to select between the soda and cola bottles.
• You can consider offering a consolation prize to a player who is not able to loop a bottle.

2. Duck Pond

Kids are bound to make a delightful splash with this awesome activity, which can be one of the carnival games for kids’ birthdays as well.

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What You Will Need

• A large kid’s pool or a tub
• A few small rubber ducks
• Numbered buckets
• Sharpie
• Water to fill the pool
• Prizes like stickers or small toys

How to Play

• Fill the pool with enough water.
• Number the ducks from 1 to 4. The numbered ducks should be the same as the numbered buckets.
• Fill the numbered buckets with several small prizes.
• Every kid gets to enter the pool and select a duck.
• Accordingly, he can pick a gift from the same numbered prize bucket.
• Put the duck back in the pool for the next kid’s turn.

3. Shooting with Little Squirts

This wonderful game can conveniently qualify for backyard carnival games.

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What You Will Need

• Plastic golf balls or ping-pong balls
• Bottle caps of dissimilar-sized drinking bottles
• Water guns
• Rope
• Buckets filled with water

How to Play

• Set the ping-pong balls on the bottle caps.
• Offer every kid a water gun filled with water. Keep adequate buckets of water close by for refilling the water guns.
• Determine a mark using the rope for every kid to take their position behind the rope.
• Every kid has to aim and shoot at the balls.
• The kid who shoots down a ball off the bottle caps wins the game.

4. Penny Toss

This pleasing game can be suitable for indoor carnival games for little kids.

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What You Will Need

• Metal Cans
• Wrapping sheets in different colours
• A cardboard
• Several pennies
• Masking tape
• Table

How to Play

• Cover the board with a wrapping sheet.
• Cover the metal cans with a changed coloured wrapping sheet.
• Stick masking tape on every metal can’s base and assemble them on the cardboard.
• Place the cardboard on the table. At a reasonable distance, set a mark on the floor for the kids to take their position.
• Give every kid some pennies. Allow them to take turns trying to throw them into the cans.
• The kid who manages to toss the maximum pennies in the metal cans is declared the winner.

5. Dart Throw

Kids can have a gala time flinging darts and playing with coloured balloons.

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What You Will Need

• Thick cardboard or a wooden piece
• Tape
• Small coloured balloons
• Few darts

How to Play

• Fix numerous coloured balloons onto the wooden piece and hang it against a wall.
• You can use a mix of small and big balloons to make the activity more challenging.
• Hand over every kid three darts to fling at the balloons.
• The kid who succeeds in bursting the maximum balloons is the winner.
• You can place a small folded slip stating the prize name inside the balloons.
• Thus, the kid will receive the prize written on the slip upon bursting it.

6. Guessing Game

This stimulating game can charge up your party with unlimited enthusiasm!

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What You Will Need

• Colourful things like beaded necklaces, rubber bands, jelly beans and so on
• Clear plastic jars
• Colourful paper
• Pens
• A fancy container

How to Play

• Fill the clear plastic jars with various colourful things.
• Place them side by side for all the kids to see.
• Provide every kid with chits of coloured paper and a pen.
• Ask all the children to jot down their guesses as to how many items each plastic jar contains, along with their names.
• Collect all the chits in a bowl and announce the winner after checking the answers.

7. Let’s Race

This exhilarating game is sure to be a clear winner with all the children.

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What You Will Need

• A marker or chalk
• Toy vehicles/cars or toy horses
• A large bulletin board
• Dice

How to Play

• Draw a racetrack or speedway on the bulletin board with six lanes using the marker.
• Assign each child a number, starting from 1 and increasing as desired, preferably up to 6.
• Ask all the players to position their toy car or horse in their assigned lane.
• Roll the dice. The kid whose lane number corresponds with the dice number gets to move his car by one space.
• The kid who completes the racetrack first is the winner.

8. Dunk Tank

Dunk tank can be a cool DIY carnival game. Kids can have oodles of fun playing with water balloons.

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What You Will Need

• A volunteer to be the target
• Several water balloons
• Buckets of water

How to Play

• Give all kids water balloons.
• Ask them to fill the balloons with water.
• Get a volunteer to be the bullseye.
• The kids take turns to try and hit the bullseyes with the water balloons.
• The kid who hits the target the greatest number of times is the winner.

9. Basketball

This enjoyable activity will endlessly keep all the kids entertained.

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What You Will Need

• A basketball
• Hoop

How to Play

• Structure a basketball hoop at an elevation appropriate to the height of the kids participating in the game.
• Every kid gets three chances to basket the ball in the hoop.
• The child who baskets the maximum number of times is the winner.

10. Breaking the Pyramid

You can put kid’s teeming energy to good use with this delightful game.

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What You Will Need

• Several plastic tumblers
• Softballs
• A table

How to Play

• Stack up the plastic tumblers on the table in the form of a pyramid.
• Set a mark for the kids to stand at a distance.
• Each child gets three chances to throw the softball at the pyramid of tumblers to break it down.
• The kid who succeeds in knocking down the pyramid is the winner.

11. Bean Bag Toss

Easy and fun, this beag ban toss game is the heart of every carnival game.

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What You Will Need

• Game board
• Bean bags
• Wide plastic cups

How to Play

• Take a game board and stick colourful wide plastic cups in a zig-zag formation using tape.
• Mark a line a few feet away from the board where children will throw the bean bags.
• Give each kid 5 to 6 bean bags to toss into the plastic cups.
• The child who throws the maximum bags into the cups will be the winner.

12. Sack Race

Are kids’ carnival games complete without a sack race? Don’t think so!

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What You Will Need

• Large sacks
• A rope for the finishing line

How to Play

• Select a grassy area for sack racing that’s clear of hard surfaces or barriers.
• Each child should wear a large sack that reaches their waist and line up at the starting point.
• Once the race begins, children must hop on in their sacks to reach the finishing line.
• The first child to reach the finish line is declared the winner.

13. Cupcake Walk

It’s not a cake walk, but a cupcake walk! Fun and exciting musical chair game with a twist.

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What You Will Need

• Three sheets of poster board
• Black marker
• Paper
• Hat
• Music player

How to Play

• Take 12 poster board sheets, and mark each one from one to 12.
• Make 12 slips and write the numbers 1 to 12 along with the corresponding prizes on each piece of paper, and place them in a hat.
• Now the kids will have to start walking as the music starts.
• When the music stops, children will have to stop on their respective boards.
• The winner will get the prize that’s written for the number they are on.

14. Prize Punch Board

Now punch your way to grab your loot!

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What You Will Need

• Cardboard
• Kite paper
• Stationary
• Glue
• Paper Cups

How to Play

• On a big cardboard, mark some grids to make columns for punching holes.
• On paper cups, attach kite paper and attach those cups to the square grids you marked.
• Inside each paper cup, hide a small prize.
• Participants will have tp punch their way through to grab their prize.

15. Lollipop Ring Toss

In this game, no kid goes empty-handed. 

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What You Will Need

• Lollipops
• Cardboad
• Glue
• Plastic rings

How to Play

• On a cardboard, drill small holes grid-wise.
• Insert the stalk of lollipops into the holes.
• Kids will have to toss rings to win the lollipops.

16. Ping Pong Toss

Always a kid’s favourite!

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What You Will Need

• Table
• Fishbowls
• Ping Pongs

How to Play

• On a table, set up fishbowls grid-wise.
• Players will have to toss ping pong balls into the fishbowls to score points.

17. Lucky Duck Pond

Let’s find your luck, shall we?

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What You Will Need

• An inflatable pool
• Ducks
• Marker

How to Play

• In an inflatable pool, add water. 
• Mark some of the ducks with a number or a star.
• The participants will have to carefully choose the duck with the star or the number.
• Whoever picks the right duck wins the prize.

18. Pick a Pop

Pick a lollipop, and see if it’s your luck shining!

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What You Will Need

• A cardboard box or a shoe box
• Lollipops
• Marker

How to Play

• Make tiny holes in the box grid-wise.
• Stick lollipops into the holes.
• Mark one lollipop’s stack with a blue or black marker and stick it among other suckers.
• Kids will have to pull one lollipop from the tray. If the bottom of the stick has a blue or black dot on it, they win a prize.
• If not, they take home a lollipop.

19. Egg Crate Bean Toss

It’s more challenging than it looks, but surprisingly more fun as well.

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What You Will Need

• Egg carton
• Coffee beans
• Colour pens
• Ping pong balls

How to Play

• Colour some random sections of egg cartons with three to four colours, each assigned with a certain point value.
• Each kid will get five coffee beans.
• Kids will throw five beans and then calculate their total score to check if they have collected enough points to grab a prize.
• Whoever has more points wins.

20. Bowling Alley

A bowling alley is one of the most popular carnival activities for kids. It’s specially made for kids, and it’s fun!

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What You Will Need

• Kid’s bowling ball set

How to Play

• Arrange the bowling pins in a proper manner.
• Kids who drop all the bowling pins in one throw wins the prize.

FAQs

1. What is the ideal age range of kids for carnical games?

The ideal age range for the new carnival games should be 4 to 12 years old. This ensures the games are simple enough for young children to enjoy, but still engaging for kids up to pre-teen years.

2. What is the simplest carnival game for kids?

One of the easiest carnival games for kids is the goldfish game. Kids toss ping pong balls three times into a fish bowl that is about two to three feet away. A kid wins a prize if the ball lands in a bowl which has a fish.

3. Do kids engage in physical activities in carnival games?

Carnival games may involve a variety of physical actions like tossing, jumping, throwing balls, and balancing, which are known to keep children active. There is no intense physical activity involved in carnival games for kids.

4. Which carnival games are mostly rigged?

Carnival games like balloon darts, basketball, the milk-bottle game, high striker, and bucket toss are known to be rigged in most cases. Even though these games are thought to be rigged, they are still plenty of fun.

5. Are carnival games costly?

Carnival games are usually not costly. They are priced as such that kids can enjoy multiple games in the carnival. The pricing, however, may vary by region.

Carnival games can be easy to make and easy to play. Plus, it can be fun for kids of all ages. So set the ball rolling for a special carnival party with amusing and easy games.

Also Read:

Awesome Indoor Games for Children
Fun Filled Dance Games for Children
Reading Games and Activities for Kids

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