Outdoor Kids Party Games can be so much fun to add to almost ANY party theme! As a party planner, you should have plenty of outdoor games available in your inventory so that you can pull together a Game Zone for all your outdoor party requests. Need some ideas? Well, well, well…today is your lucky day! AND…I’ll also give you my signature “Girlfriend Tips” on how to easily adapt the same party games to all kinds of party themes.
Set Up a Game Zone!
Game zones are so much fun and keep your party guests engaged and having fun. Set up a few games as stations. I suggest no more than 6 games. Have your guests visit each station to play the game. If you have a larger guest count, you can divide your guests into groups and have each visit a different game station and then rotate until they have completed them all. Otherwise, for smaller groups, you could keep the kids together to play each game. Here are 6 different party games that are both fun for the kids and can easily be combined together to create a fun Game Zone for your outdoor parties!
Outdoor Kids Party Games #1 – Kickball
Remember how fun kickball was? It’s kind of like soccer, and you can play it a few ways with younger and older kids.
Option #1 – Teams!
Divide the kids into two teams. Each team will send one kicker to try and score a goal by kicking the ball into the net while the other team will send one player to defend the goal. Each kid gets two turns to kick the ball. The team with the most points at the end wins!
Option #2 – Solo…Zig…Zag…Score!
Next, instead of playing on teams, it’s everyone for themselves. Place a few plastic cones zig zagging in a line towards the goal. Have the kids start on one end of the yard and each kid has to guide their ball—with their foot only—through the cones and when they reach the last cone, they have to kick it into the net. This is really great for younger kids who may not do well on teams or have the attention span to play a full game. Remember…with younger kids…fast, fun and easy are the most important!
Outdoor Kids Party Games #2 – Catch Em If You Can!
Okay, y’all…this one is my favorite and it’s one of our original signature games that we created using a traditional inflatable ball pit. Yes..you could just put this out and let the kids have fun with it as a ball pit…but why not put a creative twist on it and turn it into a game! This game is so much fun….kids LOVE it.
Here’s how you play:
- Inflate a small ball pit and fill it with the colored balls.
- Count how many different colored balls you have and that is how many kids can play the game at a time. OR you could have them do this in teams of 2 and each team is assigned a ball color. For this, there are four colors—red, blue, green, and orange.
- Get two color-coordinated nets for each ball color. You can find these online.
- Give 4 kids or 8 kids (2 to a team) a colored net.
- Dump all the balls out of the pit and spread them all over the yard.
- On my whistle, each kid has to go and fill their net with their assigned colored ball. “Catch Em If You Can”
- Then they race back and dump their balls back into the pit until they have caught and dumped all their colored balls.
- The first person who has done this…wins!
Outdoor Kids Party Games #3 – Ball Toss
Another game is the Ball Toss. Set up two baskets or buckets that your guests need to toss their balls in. Create a starting line about 12” – 18” away from the baskets depending on the ages of the party kids.
You can also play this game two ways:
Option #1 – Versus Teams!
Have the kids go head to head! Give them both the same number of balls and at the starting whistle have them each toss as many of their balls as they can—one at a time— into the baskets. The one who does it the fastest…wins!
Option #2 – Solo!
This is also great for younger kids who sometimes don’t do well if there is a time constraint or competition. This way everyone is a winner! Simply give each kid a bucket with 5 balls inside and they get to toss all the balls into the buckets to score a point. One ball = 1 point. The goal is to get atleast 3 points.
Outdoor Kids Party Games #4 – Obstacle Course
Create a fun obstacle course using jumbo sized inflatable beach balls. This makes for a fun time watching as kids try to roll or carry or kick such a jumbo sized ball through a course with cones to get it to the other side. Again, as the other games, you can set it up as a head-to-head game where you have two courses and two inflatable balls and have them compete against each other, or simply have one course that each kid completes individually. Either way…so fun!
Outdoor Kids Party Games #5 – Hide and Seek
The last one is a classic “Hide and Seek” scavenger hunt. Save this one for the last game in the rotation as your entire party can play this one together. AND…it will help them burn off any extra energy they might have left. This one is easy…simply fill fun shaped plastic eggs with small prizes, wrapped sweets or fruit snacks and hide them all over the yard. Be sure to know how many eggs you are hiding so you know if they have all been accounted for. When all the eggs have been found, all the kids keep the eggs they found.
Option #1 – Hot & Cold
You could use the Hot & Cold method to help kids find the harder ones.
Option #2 – Find only a certain # of eggs
To keep from one kid finding lots of eggs and others not so many, you can tell each kid to go find the same # of eggs. Once they have found that #…they have to race back to the game station to start opening their eggs and discover their prizes!
Again, depending on the age of the kids at the party, you have so many options. Ask older kids to help the younger kids find some of the eggs.
Outdoor Kids Party Games #6 – Bubbles
Last but not least, I like to have a game that is purely self-contained and just for fun. No competition. Bubbles are always a great way for little kids to have some fun. Put a few bubble wands out with bubble-filled trays and let them have fun dipping their wands and making bubbles.
Game Zone WOW FACTOR Prize Table!
Your prize table should be just as amazing as your gaming zones! Don’t slack off here. This is the motivation the kids will need to keep playing games. If the prize table is set up as a standalone zone, you can walk the kids by the table and show them all the wonderful prizes they can win by playing the different games in each zone.
You can also offer prizes at the end of each gaming zone. This might be a little more work, but it gives them a chance to see the “finish line” after each game. If you do it this way, each station should fit the game for prizes. You won at kickball? Have a variety of balls they can win from basketballs to footballs to giant beach balls. Include some of the characters from that station’s cardboard cutout on the table too.
Whichever you decide, make it fun and interactive. This keeps the excitement up and it makes the kids feel like they have something to go for at the end of the games!
Game Zone for Many Themes!
It doesn’t matter if you are using popular characters like Mickey & Minnie Mouse, Backyardigans, or you have a general underwater theme, your game zones need to be a part of the design plan so your game zone fits with the party’s theme.
Add a special touch to each game station with a cardboard cutout of the party’s themed character and a sign that labels what the game station is called. You can not only use character cutouts, but character balloons and other toys that will enhance your space and work with your party’s theme.
The kids will recognize these characters and it will make the experience a lot more fun for them. They will want to be involved and play. And the more characters you use, the more they will want to go from game to game to see who they can spot next.
You can adapt any of these games to any party theme simply by swapping out a cardboard character, balloons or signage near the game. Here you see this Kickball game was part of a game zone for a Backyardigans themed party. Simply swap out the Backyardigans character and sign for a different character and your game will match your theme. Here I simply added a Minnie Mouse character cutout to the sign and boom….now this “Catch Em If You Can” game matches a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Game Zone!
Partypreneurs: Make Money in Your Business
Now that you have all these amazing games and ideas to create your own Game Zone, what are you going to do with them? You are a Partypreneur, which means you can incorporate these ideas into your business and offer them to your client as an add-on service to any of your party packages. Game zones are a great way to boost your revenue and create an interactive and fun element to your parties.
PIN FOR LATER!
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