Easy School Carnival Game: 2 Liter Ring Toss!

See our tips below on how to get Soda Bottles for Free! 

Kids LOVE winning a 2 2-liter bottle of Soda!

2 LITER RING TOSS - SETUP & DIRECTIONS

(The short Carnival Savers video/gif below shows dozens of two-liter soda bottles close together in a triangle shape with rings tossed.)

Supplies for 2 Liter Ring Toss Game:

Individual 2 Liter Bottles of Soda - (50+ - see tips below how to save on these)
*Cane Rack Rings or Water Bracelets to toss (Please see details below) -OR-
**Diving Rings or Larger Plastic Rings (Please see details below)
Ticket Box and Carnival Game Sign
Stand Behind Lines - can use (Sidewalk Chalk, Hula Hoops, Small Cones, Thick Rope, or Pool Noodles)
Game prizes - typically a 2-liter soda if they win, or a consolation prize (or nothing) if they do not win

Easy Game Setup:

Set up large grouping of 2 Liter Soda Bottles in a triangle shape 2 - 4 dozen or more on the ground.

You will want to have a few different "stand behind" lines for different aged players. Your youngest players should be about one yardstick away from the bottles.

The Difficulty of this Game is Determined by 2 Factors:

1. What type of rings your players are tossing

2. How close the 2 Liter Bottles are to one another.

*The small hard, plastic Cane Rack Rings make this game VERY DIFFICULT!!
If you give the players 5 chances, generally, just one in about 25 players will ring a soda bottle if the 2-liter bottles are touching and in a large triangle shape, as shown above. Please let your volunteers know what to expect!

** The Diving Rings (or larger plastic rings) almost make the game EASY! (so follow our suggestions below)
(See the video above - it is simple to ring sodas) If you choose larger rings, give the players three chances and space your bottles about 6 inches apart. You can also tell the players they must ring at least two of three 2-liter Sodas to win one! - See our story below in the hints and tips section :)

How to Play the 2 Liter Ring Toss Carnival Game:

Players are given either five rings (for the smaller rings) or three rings (for the larger rings) for a chance to loop a 2 liter soda bottle.

As mentioned above, if they have the smaller rings and they loop a soda bottle - they win a soda! (Be sure to tell your volunteers that this game is challenging and 1 in 25 or so will win!)

If they have the larger rings, they need to loop 2 soda bottles to win a soda! Be sure the sodas are not touching each other or this game will be way to easy!

Additional Hints & Tips:

Our story: Years ago, one of our team members was a volunteer at a school carnival. They had initially set up to use Glow-in-the-Dark Bracelets as the rings, but the volunteers worried when 5 or 6 children in a row did not win and thought the game was too hard. So, they connected two bracelets together to make larger rings.

Well... long story short, the volunteers did not know that the number of sodas was about 150 for a 4-hour carnival, and the planners were counting on about 1 in 10 kids to win a soda. With the larger rings, about 1 in 3 kids were winning, and volunteers were sent to the grocery store to buy about 100 more 2-liter soda bottles.

If the volunteers had been told that we expected only 1 in 10 kids to win and possibly adjusted the game a little (made a larger triangle of sodas to make the game a little easier), the 2-liter bottles would have lasted the entire carnival.

Lesson Learned: be sure your volunteers know about how many kids should be winning and have a prize/game runner checking on the games and answering questions!

Note: This game can be Almost FREE if you get the 2-liter bottles donated. You can ask a local grocery store, but we love to see the school classrooms participating in helping to supply these inexpensive sodas - which can be turned into a contest :)

This carnival booth sounds "ordinary" to adults - but kids at our school love it and we have seen schools have two games running at the same time as the lines are always long for this game!