Homecoming Themes and Spirit Games

With back-to-school comes a new focus for high-school students: homecoming!  When you’re trying to think of fun, new things for homecoming this year, why not add spirit games?  Prizes could include free tickets to the homecoming dance or a gift card so the winner can get dinner or go see a movie.  You can also pick a few themes and let your students vote for their favorites—or do a different theme every day of homecoming week!  Here are a few easy themes and fun spirit games to try:

• Old Hollywood Glamour Theme:  Roll out the red carpet for homecoming week!  Decorate the entrance to your school to look like the outside of an old-fashioned theater, complete with Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Pressley, and James Dean standees, to get your students into the spirit of the week.  At lunch, you could set up a ticket booth reminiscent of ticket booths at those old theaters to sell homecoming dance and football game tickets as well as hand out popcorn.  Your spirit game or contest idea here could be impersonations!  Hold a small talent competition in which your students can show off their impersonations.
• At the Carnival Theme:  Students never get too old to go to the carnival!  Hang streamers from the ceiling throughout the hallways of your school and decorate the main hall with bright colors and fun balloons.  Serve a different carnival-themed snack each day: popcorn, caramel apples, and cotton candy are great options.  The fun spirit game you could tie into this theme could be a balloon animal contest!  See which students can make a balloon animal, flower, or hat, and then have a panel made up of teachers judge to see who wins.
• Under the Starry Night Theme:  While typically, a moonlit theme is more associated with a dance, you could take and it create moonlit cookouts for lunch throughout the week.  Make it tailgate-related for the upcoming game!  Serve hot dogs, hamburgers, macaroni and cheese, and potato chips—you could even let your students sit outside and enjoy the beautiful weather for a few more days before the chill of fall sets in.  What kind of spirit game could you incorporate here, you ask?  Challenge your students to show their school spirit: have them make t-shirts, wear face paint, do anything they can to create the best show of school spirit.  The faculty of the school can judge again, but rather than one overall winner, choose a winner from each class.  This way, your students will have a chance to get to know someone they might not have otherwise met.

These are just a few suggestions—your choices for homecoming themes are wide and varied.  The best way to get your students pumped for homecoming is to do something different to catch their attention every day of the week.  By choosing a theme that has so many different possibilities, your students will definitely be ready to show their spirit at the big game!

Carnival Days – Booth & Prize Ideas

Indoors or out, in traditional primary colors or modern neon, your carnival theme event can benefit from a visit or two to Stumps Party for the best in carnival supplies and ideas.

Carnival Theme Event Booths for Outdoors
Start with a canopy and side walls. If you have never done this before, it’s important to know that canopies and tents naturally will want to become airborne in much less wind than you think! Take care to tie and stake your canopy and/or put weights at each corner to anchor it sufficiently for conditions.

Likewise select the heaviest, sturdiest tables you can manage for inside, and weather-resistant vinyl banners to advertise the booth. If yours is an annual event, think about putting a message on carnival banners that is not dated, so they can be re-used.

Now you’re ready to finish decorating! Drape plastic flag pennants or two-color spirit pennants across the top for color, and cover tables with coordinating plastic table cover rolls secured with clips, tape, or table skirts. Tying clusters of balloons to the booth corners is fine, but do leave it to the very last step in your decorating since latex balloons age quickly outdoors.

Choose games and sales items that hold up to the expected weather conditions for your part of the country. For example, select hard candy lollipops instead of chocolate lollipops as sales items and prizes if it might be hot out.

Stash some extra bungee cords and double-sided tape under the table for “just in case.”

Carnival Event Booth Ideas for Indoors
Of course you can use your canopy indoors, but in this case look at the feet to see if you need to wrap them to protect the flooring in your carnival theme event venue.

As for decorating, indoors you have a wider range of materials at your service. Use red-and-white striped or solid corrugated paper to skirt a table or make into a tri-fold table display. Consider the delightful possibilities for the ceiling, and incorporate crepe streamers and balloons into carnival décor.

One of the biggest advantages to indoor carnivals is the availability of dazzling made-to-order props: Carnival entrance, Ferris wheel, ticket booth, carousel horse and more. We’ve expanded the color palette of carnival decorations so you now can decorate a carnival theme event in traditional primary colors or in a way that evoke neon and the midway on a summer evening.

Carnival Food, Games & Prizes
Carnivals and popcorn go together. Offer a deal at the ticket booth that with x-number of tickets purchased, carnival-goers receive a plastic popcorn container that is good for a free fill-up (mark the bottom of the box upon serving the freebie) and can later be re-used as a container for trinkets.

Alternatively, you can serve customized bags of Stumps’ caramel popcorn, and soda pop in customized stadium cups. Try to add value to your edible offerings wherever you can with free personalization and take-home containers that make them more attractive.

Classic carnival games are inexpensive and met with affection no matter the generation. Fill up a large tub or kids’ wading pool with water, add duck pond floaters and follow the included instructions. Likewise fill a dozen or two plastic fishbowls placed together in a grid pattern and get out the ping pong balls for a game that combines skill and chance.

Wearable favors are convenient for strolling prize winners and add to the festivity. Funny hats, party beads, sunglasses, whistles and glow favors are just a few examples of party favors that make terrific carnival game prizes.