Handmade summer festival games: a collection of ideas you can enjoy at kindergartens, daycare centers, and at home.
At the festivals held all over during summer, you can enjoy all kinds of games like goldfish scooping, target shooting, and raffles! If you could bring fun summer festival games to a daycare, kindergarten, or even your home, the kids would definitely have a great time! In this article, we’ll introduce a bunch of ideas for handmade summer festival games.
They range from games you can actually play at festivals to make-believe play with a summer festival vibe.
Pick a few ideas from the ones we’re about to share and try hosting your own DIY summer festival!
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Handmade summer festival games: A collection of ideas (11–20) that can be enjoyed at kindergartens, nursery schools, or at home.
Underwater Coin Drop Game
Heart-pounding excitement! Here’s an idea for an underwater coin drop game.
Since it’s summer, how about setting up a water-themed corner to bring a refreshing feel? All you need are a large vase and a plate.
Place the plate inside the large vase and fill it with water.
Then drop a coin from above and try to land it on the plate! It’s thrilling because you can’t predict how the coin will move in the water.
Be sure to include this at your summer festival!
Wobbly Ghost
Let’s throw shuriken at the ghosts! Here’s a fun idea for wobbling ghosts.
Ghosts are usually thought of as scary, but using construction paper, let’s make some cute ghost targets! What you’ll need: balloons, construction paper, twine, curling ribbon, scissors, glue, tape, and colored pens.
The ghosts hang from the twine and sway gently, so aiming with shuriken will be tricky.
Making the ghosts together with kids is part of the fun, too!
Target game made from a milk carton
Let’s make a target at home with things you already have! Here’s an idea for a target game using a milk carton.
Milk cartons are great materials because, with a bit of creativity, you can make all kinds of handmade toys.
This time, we’ll use a milk carton to make a target for throwing shuriken (paper stars).
You’ll need a milk carton, scissors, and motifs made from illustrations or colored paper.
Just cut the milk carton and set it up—instant target! It’s also nice that you can stick on your favorite illustrations or motifs.
Candy fishing
A fishing game where you can catch candy will be a hugely popular corner for kids.
For preparation, attach S-hooks to the fishing rods and clip paper clips onto the candy.
Put the candy in a spacious container like a kiddie pool, and then just try to catch your target treat! You can also prepare rods with different difficulty levels to match different ages.
It’s surprisingly hard to snag the candy you’re aiming for, so it’s sure to get everyone excited! Enjoy the game together with lots of lively chatter.
lottery; drawing lots; raffle
Raffles are also games that kids can enjoy casually.
Simply pulling a folded piece of construction paper can be exciting, but if you have time, why not make a raffle modeled after Ichiban Kuji? Prepare two sheets of construction paper in the size of the tickets; cut slits into one sheet so the pieces can be peeled open.
Since this involves fine work with a craft knife, an adult should handle it.
It might be a good idea to have the children take charge of preparing the prizes.
Let’s liven up the summer festival with a raffle that makes everyone excited to see what they’ll win.
ball basket
A ball toss using cardboard is a simple and fun game.
First, unfold the lid flaps of the cardboard box and tape them down to make a deep box shape.
Next, draw your preferred shapes on the cardboard and cut them out with a utility knife.
Since cardboard is sturdy, adults should handle the cutting.
After decorating around the holes with drawings, crumple newspaper into balls and secure them with tape to make the balls.
Having plenty of balls is recommended so the game can continue without interruption.
Try playing to see if you can get the balls into your target holes!
Handmade summer festival games: A collection of ideas you can enjoy at kindergartens, nurseries, or at home (21–30)
Marble Rolling Tower
How about a stylish marble run, a Marble Rolling Tower, made from toilet paper cores and colored construction paper? First, stack three toilet paper cores vertically to make one long tube.
Next, let’s create the tracks where the marbles will roll using colored construction paper.
Prepare a rectangular sheet of colored paper, cut it lengthwise in half, then fold the half sheet in half two times.
Unfold the second fold, and along the crease you just made, cut a series of deep, fine slits from one edge to the other.
Once that’s done, fold it into a long, thin triangle to form the track.
Finally, attach the track diagonally to the tube like a slide, and glue a piece of cardboard to the very bottom of the tube as a base—done! Try making it with different colors of paper.
