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Water Games

Hole in the Bucket (2+ participants)

  • Materials: 3 buckets, 2 milk/juice containers with 10 holes in each

Directions:

  • Take 1 big bucket and fill it with water.
  • Take 2 more buckets and put them down about 20 meters away.
  • Divide the participants into 2 teams and each team is given a milk/juice container with water and place it on your head to try and keep as much water as possible in the container.
  • The first team to fill their bucket with water wins.

 

Ice cube melt (2+ participants)

  • Materials: Ice cubes (or frozen t-shirts)

Directions:

  • Divide participants into two equal teams
  • At a starting signal, each team picks up an ice cube (or frozen t-shirt) and tries to melt it as quickly as possible.
  • Players can rub it between their hands or against other clothes, but they may NOT put it in their mouths
  • While they are trying to melt the ice cube or t-shirt, it should be passed around the team frequently. No participant should keep it for more than 10 seconds at a time. Players should also keep it off the ground.
  • If you play with a frozen t-shirt, the first team to melt their t-shirt enough to put it on one of their teammates wins.

 

Drip, Drip, DROP! (3+ participants)

  • Materials: a cup, a bucket of water

Directions:

  • The game is duck, duck, goose! But slightly different for hot days.
  • Have participants sit in a circle and decide who will be ‘it’ first. Give them a cup of water.
  • The ‘it’ person will walk around the circle, dropping little drips of water on each person’s head saying “drip” every time they drop water on someone’s head.
  • When they get to the person they want to race, they drop the rest of the cup of water on their head and yell ‘DROP!’ That person then has to race the dropper around the circle back to their spot. Whoever gets there first wins, and the loser becomes the dropper

 

Musical Water Balloons (3+ participants)

  • Materials: Water Balloons, music

Directions:

  • Just like musical chairs, you will need 1 less water balloon each round (for instance, 5 players= 4 water balloons).
  • Gently lay the balloons on the grass.
  • Start playing some music and then have the kids walk in a circular motion.
  • At random intervals, turn off the music.
  • When the music stops, the kids need to find a balloon and sit on it.
  • Whoever is left without a water balloon to sit on is out.
  • The last child left in the game is the winner.

 

Water balloon hot potato (3+ participants)

  • Materials: water balloons

Directions:

  • Participants sit in a circle and start passing the water balloon around when the music begins.
  • When the music stops, whoever is holding the water balloon has to break it over their head!

 

What time is it blue whale? (3+ participants)

  • Materials: functioning water hose

Directions:

  • Basically, the same thing as ‘What time is it Mr. Wolf?’ but the person who is ‘it’ has a water hose that they spray participants with instead of trying to tag them.
  • A leader should help the participant who is ‘it’ with the hose to ensure they are spraying the water below the waist.
  • Participants call out “What time is it blue whale?” and the whale will call out a time between 1 and 10. The other participants will take that number of steps while counting out loud as a group. This continues until the whale decides to respond with ‘SPRAY TIME!” at which time the whale will turn around and try to spray other participants while they run back to the other end of the field.

 

Greasy Pig Relay (4+ participants)

  • Materials: Water balloons, dish soap

Directions:

  • Fill multiple water balloons and coat them in dish soap (or baby oil) to make them slimy and slippery.
  • Divide participants into teams, have them line up, and instruct them to complete an “over-under” pass pattern through the line without dropping the balloon.
  • This can be done to move a certain amount of water balloons from start to finish OR to move the team from a start line to a finish line.