I Need Some Ideas!

I may see if I cant make some room for the ball toss I always loved that game as a kid. Although I was never really good at it, I have very bad aim.

penny stacking,

everyone keeps adding a penny to their own tower (at the same time as others) until there is only one tower standing.

let everyone keep his/her pennies after they spill, give the winner something shiny.

of course there will be people bumping others' towers, jumping up and down to create earth quakes, lots of screaming, pouting and penny throwing...

...but after that is all done let the kids have a turn.

Children tend to really like coins with animals on them. There are a lot of cheap world coins with all kinds of different animal/nature scenes on them. When I brought my daughter to a coin show she really liked searching through the junk bins and it's a way for them to start type collecting which is a lot easier/more interesting than sets for the younger ones.

Maybe you could mix in a few coins with different pictures on them and then have them try to find them like a scavenger hunt. "find the coin with the crab, the bird etc..."

On the ball toss set it up like beer pong. No breakage with a runaway ping pong ball.

But be sure to have a sink nearby, because even I usually end up with black fingers in my zeal to dig through those bins...

Im a total newbie, but my idea is have a microscope or good camera hooked up to a computer monitor. Have the kids bring up their pocket change and even bills, and look at them through magnification. Periodically post weird looking or old coins so that everybody can see, and explain what is unusual or valuable about the coin. About once an hour or so, have a contest, whoever has the oldest nicklel, a penny with an s on it, a quarter from a called state, etc. for prizes, I would suggest War Nickels, the silver content makes them worth like what, 50 cents each, or steel pennies, or common proofs. Something that looks different than average, but not overly expensive.

In other words, have instruction about different aspects of coins, then have kids look for it.

Ever watch BoZo's Circus? Take some plastic pails and put about 5 in a row. Might want to put a bit of cotton, cloth or sand at the bottom to protect the coins. Or use some kind of tokens. Have the kids stand behind a line and throw into the pails. Bigger prize for the farthest pails a coin gets in.

When we were kids we used to use the sidewalks for coin games. Most sidewalks have separtion cracks every so many feet. We used to stand behind one, toss a coin to the second crack. Closest one to the crack wins all the others.

For kids that can count good. Ask how many ways they can make change for a dollar. You may have to supply pencils and paper. Examples: 2 half dollars, 4 quarters, 1 half dollar and 5 dimes, etc. A prize to the one with the highest amount. Supposed to be 291 ways.

Have kids try to stand a Nickel on it's side.