Church Carnival Game Ideas

Church picnics present a great opportunity to bring a community together and have fun for all ages. If you have never planned a church picnic, you may not realize the amount of time and planning that occur prior to the event date. Much of the planning involves deciding on carnival games for the children.

Set up a booth for children to have their faces painted. You may paint anything from flowers to cartoon characters. If you prefer to focus on church themes, paint crosses or animals from bible stories.

Fill a small swimming pool with yellow rubber ducks. Underneath each duck, draw a colored dot. The dots should correspond with prize levels. A participant picks one duck out of the pool and may choose a prize corresponding with the dot color.

Attach several buckets to different rungs on a ladder. Have the participant stand behind a line about five feet away from the ladder. The participant tries to toss bean bags into each of the buckets. The participant wins a prize based on the number of bean bags she successfully tosses into buckets.

Line up glass milk jugs or plastic containers with a similar shape. Have participants stand about 10 feet away and toss rings over the mouths of the containers.

Attach an old tire to a rope and hang from a tree branch. Have the participant stand 10 to 20 feet away from the tire and try to toss a frisbee or a football through the tire.

Purchase a few bags of jelly beans. Place all the jelly beans into a glass container. Have participants guess how many jelly beans they believe are in the container. At the end of the contest, whoever guesses the closest wins the container of jelly beans.

Create a lollipop tree out of a piece of cardboard. Fold the cardboard in half and tape both ends down to a table so that the fold is sticking up into the air. Buy several cases of lollipops and mark several of the lollipop bottoms with a colored marker. Poke holes in the cardboard and fill it with lollipops. For the game, the participant chooses a lollipop. If it is marked, he or she receives a prize. If it is not marked, the participant still gets the lollipop but no prize.

Prior to the designated starting time for this event, measure lines in an open area corresponding to yard lines on a football field. Mark the lines with tape or spray paint. Have participants line up at a starting line and throw, punt and kick a football toward your marked lines. Have judges standing at the lines to see where the ball first hits the ground. Record each person's throw or kick. Award prizes to the individuals who threw or kicked the ball the farthest.