So many great ideas - thanks for sharing! I especially liked: the corn shucking contest and giving the corn to a local soup kitchen, and the cut up apples with caramel & sprinkles, instead of bobbing for apples!
We have an annual Octoberfest. We moved it to November this year because it was a better fit with our fall break. So now it's a Fallfest. We have a Chili Cook Off and Apple Pie Bake Off competition. Winners just win a small prize (this year it's scarecrow decorations) and bragging rights. We have several games for the kids including, duck pond with turkey ducks, bubble gum blowing contest, root beer chugging contest, sucker pull, bean bag toss, bozo buckets, tattoo table. Prizes are from oriental trading mega packs and candy. We usually have a pumpkin decorating contest this year we're changing to scarecrow decorating. We have hay rides around the property. We offer the chili, apple pies, hot dogs, chips, cheese sauce, corn bread. Instead of bobbing for apples we slice them, put them in bowls and drizzle carmel and sprinkles over them. They go alot farther and the kids love them. We put out containers for free will offerings and surprisingly we usually come very close to our expenses. I know I've forgotten some of the games but hope that helps.
Fall can be a great ime to do family fun night ,I hope these ideas help you .
A county fair type blue ribbon contest is a great thing to do and very inexpensive also because the parents and kids do the work . Have parents and kids both make pies ,cookies jams , or cakes with a fall theme like pumpkin or apple .Then all you need is a few judges who taste them ( I am sure you will get lots of help with that part ). and pick their favorie 3 in each catagory . Then all you have to do is award the ribbons . You can also ask parents to bring an extra one to sell as at a consession stand . This is a lot of fun and both parents and kids can do it . You can even do like a mom and daughter or father and son catagory .
Instead of bobbing for apples You can take one long string and tie it across a room and hang apples by strings of different length and people put their hands behind their backs and try to bite them off .It is a lot cleaner .
A petting zoo of small animals is nice also .Ask Local farmers or the 4h to bring in small animals like ducks , goats , or pigs what ever they have so the kids can see them .
Pumpkin bowling is a lot of fun also . Set up bowling pins and they have to use a pumpkin like a bowling ball .
Hay rides are also great even if it is just around the school parking lot .
You can play games like pin the nose on the scare crow , see who can shuck an ear of corn the fastest ( and this one is great if you have a local soup kitchen they would love the fresh corn and all the work has been done for them . I do advise calling a head and asking if they would like you to donate it with your school having 500 kids that could be a lot of corn ) , decorating pumpkins is always a lot of fun .
My best advice for a fall harvest theme is think country times of the past when a good harvest was reason to celebrate and remember things then were a lot simpler it was about using what you had .
We are trying to plan a little fall festival for next month and need some ideas. We don't want it to be a fundraiser, just something to get people together. We've thought about decorating the gym with a fall theme, leaves, bales of hay, etc. We can't really do a haunted theme because of the smaller kids. We've also tossed around the idea of trying to get pumpkins donated and have everyone come and decorate their pumpkins as a group, and maybe we can sell caramel apples or apple cider, something like that. We'll probably block out about 2hrs on a Friday night. The school has 500 kids K-3. I suggested bobbing for apples, but that was shot down, lol.
