Break out the bathing suits and fill as many water balloons as you can before you start playing so you don’t need to slow down once you start the games.
Water Balloon Trampoline
You will need four players, an old sheet, and water balloons.
Each player grabs a corner of the sheet. Set the water balloon in the middle. Bounce the balloon into the air and catch it with the sheet. How high can you toss the balloon and still catch it? Try adding a second or third water balloon. Keep going until a balloon bursts on the ground.
Water Balloon Volleyball
You will need four to eight players, two old sheets, a piece or rope, and water balloons.
Set the rope on the ground to act as the “net.” Each team holds a sheet on either side of the rope. One team uses their sheet to bounce the water balloon toward the other team, which tries to catch the balloon on their sheet. Continue back-and-forth without crossing the net.
Water Balloon War
You will need approximately five water balloons and one plastic fork for each player.
Divide the group in half – an offensive team and a defensive team. Teams stand ten-to-twenty feet apart. The offensive team players each take five water balloons that they throw at any of the players on the other team. The defensive players must stand in place and try to pop the water balloons with plastic forks before they are struck with the balloons. Switch sides.
Water Balloon Cut-Up
Give each player a plastic knife, a paper plate, and five water balloons. Every player sets his water balloons on the plate and cuts into them with the plastic knife. Turn this into a race to see which player cuts through all five balloons first.
Water Balloon Relay
Divide the players into two teams that face one another. The player on the end starts with a water balloon and tosses it to the player opposite him. That player tosses the balloon to the next player down the line of the opposite team. Continue zigzagging the balloon down the lines of players. If the water balloon makes it to the end, send it back up the line. The team that breaks the fewest balloons is the winner – although, if the day if hot then everyone may be hoping to burst a balloon!
Hot Potato – Cold Water
Chant a simple song that everyone knows while passing the water balloon around a circle of players. Players can switch the direction the balloon is traveling at any time. The player left holding the water balloon at the end of the song smashes the balloon over her head and sits out during the next round.
Water Balloon Musical Chairs
Set water balloons in a circle so there is one less water balloon than number of players. Someone standing away from the water balloons runs the radio. When the music stops, players run to sit (or jump) on the balloons. The player who doesn’t land on a balloon is out. Continue while reducing the number of balloons in play.
Use these backyard games as a hot day option to the pool or the beach. Be sure to have more water balloons available than you think you’ll need to keep the games running. After cooling off with these water balloon games, have the players grab a trash bag and work together to pick up even the smallest piece of broken balloon so birds and other animals don’t mistake the bits for tasty insects.
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