For me, a day at the state fair is some of my best childhood and adult memories! However, it can be overwhelming too. Especially with a stroller/young kids. Our state fair gets jammed pack especially if you go on the wrong day/time.
Whether you’re wanting to skip the fair and bring it to life at home or you’re going to the fair, but still want to bring it to life at home – I have the activities and foods for you.
I’m not going to lie, it was harder than I thought to find activities that weren’t more on the level of a carnival or circus. My favorite part was planning the fair themed food – that was the easy part too. Just put anything on a stick – right?!
Note: These activities are geared towards younger kids. The ages of the kids I did these activities with were 1 1/2 to 3 years old.
Activities:
Rides –
I had this activity represent the rides area of the fair. Ours is called “The Midway.” I created this graphic of a ferris wheel with circles “riding” each cart. The kids would use tongs to transfer pom poms to each blue circle to represent someone riding the ferris wheel.
Side note: this is a great way to work on the child’s pincer grasp for pre-writing skills! It also works on hand-eye coordination.
We also did a gross motor activity to represent rides where I had the kids doing different movements that go in the motion of certain rides. For example: for “tilt-a-whirl” the kids would spin in a circle.
Games –
We played a few different games to represent the area of games near the rides at the fair.
- Rubber duck game – I purchased these rubber ducks and drew a heart on the bottom of three ducks. I filled a bucket with enough water to have the ducks floating, but not too much that the water would get sloshed everywhere. The kids took turns picking a duck to see if there was a heart on the bottom.
- Ring toss game – there are several ways you can do this one. I already had cones with rings that you can find, here. I set these up in a staggered bunch in the shape of a triangle and had the kids toss the rings towards the cones.
- Knock the pins down – again, there are several ways you could do this, the easiest being with “cups” as pins and a soft ball. I had a bowling set that I used.
Animals –
Another big part of the fair is walking through the different barns filled with all kinds of animals. Our favorite is seeing the babies! I created this Montessori “object to picture matching” of different farm animals you can see at the fair. For older kids you could put more than four animals on the page.
In PowerPoint, I found pictures of animals I already have (thank you Little People). Then I printed and laminated the page. The kids would grab an animal out and match it to the correct picture.
Food Activities –
I showed the kids pictures of foods you can find at the fair and named them. I asked the kids to tell me what their favorite is and I talked about mine.
We did some coloring pages that you can find here of different fair foods!
Concerts –
Another big part of the state fair is all the different concerts you can go to. Big artists that you can pay to see or smaller artists that you can see for free on a stage.
I pulled up a few songs from a few artists that were going to be at our fair that year to play them for the kids. The kids could sing along and/or dance.
We also looked at vocab cards of items you would find at a concert: drum set, lights, microphone, guitar, stage, speakers, keyboard, etc.
Then I had the kids pick from their toy instruments and we put on a pretend concert!
Food:
For the in-home daycare I run, I serve breakfast, lunch and snack. I tried to come up with foods to serve that you could find at the fair. Or – worst case scenario, put it on a stick!
Breakfast –
Hard boiled egg on a stick with bacon on the side! At our state fair they hand out hard boiled eggs on a stick for free and there is a seasoning out you can put on it. It’s so good!
I also did cinnamon rolls, pancake sausage corn dog and mini donuts throughout the week!
Lunch –
Grilled chicken on a stick. This one I purchased the frozen grilled chicken nuggets and covered them in shredded cheese to try to encourage the kids to eat it more. Unfortunately, they didn’t eat it.
I also did corn dogs, mac & cheese bites on a stick (from the freezer section), nachos and PB&J on a stick. If it can be put on a stick you could do any kind of food to fit this theme!
Snacks –
Pineapple on a stick and cheese curds! Fried cheese is always a good idea and is also one of my favorites to get at a food stand.
I also did fruit on a stick, kettle corn (Boom Chicka Pop) and “cup” of cookies. Those cookies at our fair are the best I could ever eat. So warm and heavenly. It’s usually a must get before leaving sometimes more than once.
I hope these ideas help bring the fair to your home especially if you aren’t able to make it to the actual fair! Let me know your favorite fair food in the comments!
