By Alisa Bangerter – Studio 5 Party and Ideas Correspondent
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Water Obstacle Course – Create a course that has water involved with each obstacle. Use buckets or small pools filled with water, squirt guns, hoses or sprinklers. Ideas for stations would be: jump rope over a sprinkler, shoot a water gun at a target, have a hurdle over a stream from a hose, etc.
Water Baseball or Kickball – Cover a large playing field size area with plastic (heavy duty painters plastic). Lay several hoses on the plastic to get it wet. Place a bucket of water at each base. Play using a soft sponge type ball.
Sidewalk Water Painting – Give kids a bucket of water and a large paintbrush. Let them “paint” pictures on the driveway or sidewalk. This works great on a hot day.
Necklace of Ice – A fun way to keep kids cool is to make them an ice cube necklace. Fill an ice cube tray with water and lay a length of string or yarn down the center of the cubes making sure the string is sticking in each cube. Freeze. The individual cubes will have frozen to the string making a necklace of ice “beads”.
Frozen Sock Game – This is hilarious when played with a group of teens. Play this game in teams or individually. Freeze a pair of socks (or a t-shirt) in the middle of a heavy duty zip-lock bag. Give each person or team a frozen bag. On the word “go” each person or team tries to be the first to get the socks out of the ice and put them on.
Water Limbo – Play the limbo game using garden hoses. (A garden hose with a nozzle that can shoot the water straight works well.) This could also be used as a hurdle instead of going under it. Play some fun music.
Leaking Water Balloon Game – Fill up a water balloon and tie shut. Place everyone in a circle. Carefully pinch the side of the water balloon and pierce with a straight pin to make a tiny hole. The water should be streaming out of the hole. Start passing the leaking balloon around the circle. The person who is holding the balloon when it runs out of water or pops is “out”. Start another balloon around and play until there is one really wet person left!
Ice Blocking – Purchase one block of ice per person. Go to the top of a grassy hill, place a towel on the block of ice and slide away. This is fun to do as a group.
Water Sponge Relay – Be creative with relays involving water. There are endless possibilities. Try a relay where sponges are dipped in a full bucket at the front of a line (team), passed over and under through the line and the end person squeezes it into an empty bucket. The winner is the team who gets the most water in their empty bucket the fastest. Another fun relay is to line up teams and place an empty bucket across a line that they must run to. Have the teams dip a cup in water and run and dump it in the bucket across from them. The first team to fill their bucket wins. For extra fun- pierce holes in the sides of the cup.
Wet Clothing Relay – Fill a bucket with wet clothing (sweatshirt and pants, t-shirt socks, hat, etc.) Line up two teams. The first person on each team must run to the bucket and put on the wet clothes. They then run back peel the clothes off give them to the next person who puts them on and then runs to the bucket and takes them off and places them in the water and so forth. The winner is the team who finishes first with everyone having a chance to dress in the wet clothing.
Duck Pond – Set up your own duck pond game. Plastic ducks (in quantity) can be purchased at party supply stores. Place numbers or prizes on the bottom of the ducks and let kids choose one. This is fun for small kids.
Water Gun Tag – Play tag but use a water gun. If you get sprayed you are out. You could also play tag with wet sponges.
Ice Cold Feet Game – Fill a small wading pool with cold water. Place a bunch of ice cubes in the water. Have two people stand in the pool and on the word “go” the people try to get all the ice cubes out of the pool with their toes and feet. The winner is the one who can get out the most ice in an allotted amount of time.
Drip, Drip, Drop Game – This game is played like Duck, Duck, Goose. Have everyone sit in a circle. The “it” person goes around with a bucket of water and places a drip on each head until he “drops” the bucket of water. The person who was “dropped” on gets up and chases the person around the circle and tries to catch him before he can sit back in the open spot. If he doesn’t catch him he is now “it”. This can also be played as: Splish, Splish, Splash.
Water Pinata – Fill a clear or colored large plastic bag with water and tie shut. Suspend from a tree branch. Blindfold kids and let them swing at it with a bat. If it pops they will be covered with a rush of water.
Water Balloon Volleyball – Prepare several large buckets of smaller water balloons. Give each pair of people a towel. Place a balloon in the middle of the towel and have the pair toss it to another pair holding a towel. The other pair tries to catch the balloon without it breaking. Use a net or just have the pairs toss back and forth increasing distance each time.
Water Balloon Race – Line up two teams. Give each team two sticks or wooden spoons. Have each person take turns placing a water balloon between the sticks and running down around a certain point and back. If the water balloon drops they must start over. An option could be to carry the balloon on a spoon. The first team that completes the race wins. A variation on this is to play without sticks. Have the team members instead place a water balloon under their chins.
Sit on the Balloon Relay – Divide into two teams. Place a chair across from each team. Have the first person on each team take a water balloon and run to the chair and sit on it until it pops. They run back and the next team member goes. The winning team is the one who finishes first.
Water Yo-Yo’s – Fill up small water balloons and tie on large heavy rubber bands.
Water Jump Rope – Fill a paper cup with water and have a contest who can jump the longest while keeping water in the cup. (Have two people turning the rope for the jumper.)
Shoot Off the Shaving Cream Game – You will need teams of two for this game. Have one person in every pair put shaving cream all over their face. The other person in the pair stands back about two feet facing the person with the shaving cream. On the word “go” the person without the shaving cream squirts the shaving cream off the face of the other team member. The team to win is the first one to “shoot” most of the water off. This is a great game t o do at a beach. A variation of this is to make alkaseltzer necklaces. Pierce a hole in an alkaseltzer tablet and thread string though to make necklace. Have one person wear the necklace and have the partner shoot at the necklace until it has bubbled and dissolved.
Ice Cube Melting – Place an ice cube on a hot sidewalk. Have everyone guess how long it will take to melt. Give a prize to the person closest to the correct time. A variation on this is to divide into teams. Give each team an ice cube. Have each team take turns passing around the ice cube and holding it until it melts. The first team to melt the cube wins.
Sprinkler Freeze Game – Instruct everyone to run around the yard while the sprinklers are off. As soon as the sprinklers are turned on everyone must freeze in place. Continue to turn sprinklers off and on until everyone is very wet!
Largest Water Splat Game – Have a contest who can make the largest splat mark with a water balloon.
Water Tug-O-War – Play tug-o-war over a running sprinkler.
Water Treasure Hunt – Toss coins in a pool and let kids fish them out. A kiddie pool works great for smaller kids.
Musical Towels – Play this game just like musical chairs – but instead of using chairs, use towels. Lay a beach towel out for each person – minus one – in a large circle. Play some music. Tell kids they must act like they are surfing, swimming, or hula dancing as they go around the towels until the music stops. When the music stops they must lay or sit on a towel and the one who doesn’t get a towel is out. Remove a towel each round until there is one winner left.
Cool Bubbles – Give kids a variety of items to make bubbles blowers with. Pull open a coat hanger to make a giant blower. Try bending pipe cleaners into different shapes to make unique blowers. Be creative and look around your home for fun items that might work.
Remember to supervise kids around water, wear lots of sunscreen, take pictures and have a ton of fun!
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