Outdoor Kids Games for Neighborhood Event

Hilbert wrote in message
...
Hi,

Our neighborhood has annual pig roast and celebration, a part of which is
a parade with a fire truck and a couple of hours of "games" for the kids.

In a moment of insanity, I volunteered to co-chair the kids games
committee. Any ideas on fun, multi-age games that easily and safely
executed by volunteers?

Parachute games if you can get a parachute. One all ages seem to like is
"cat and mouse". "Mouse" crawls round underneath the parachute, and "cat"'s
on top trying to catch the mouse. Everyone else shakes the parachute into
waves. You can pair little ones off together so they don't get hurt and the
older ones can have 2 cats, or even 2 cats, 2 mice.
Younger children like running underneath and bouncing on top while the
parachute makes waves. You can make it a game by having questions ("everyone
wearing red" has to run underneath to the other side) for pre-school age.
Debbie

Hi,

Our neighborhood has annual pig roast and celebration, a part of which is
a parade with a fire truck and a couple of hours of "games" for the kids.

In a moment of insanity, I volunteered to co-chair the kids games
committee. Any ideas on fun, multi-age games that easily and safely
executed by volunteers?

Thanks -

Leslie

--

In article ,
Hilbert wrote:

Hi,

Our neighborhood has annual pig roast and celebration, a part of which is
a parade with a fire truck and a couple of hours of "games" for the kids.

In a moment of insanity, I volunteered to co-chair the kids games
committee. Any ideas on fun, multi-age games that easily and safely
executed by volunteers?

Thanks -

Leslie

--

Some of my kids' favorites have been:

Sawdust $$ pile: a HUGE pile of sawdust was dumped on the ground, and
lots of change was mixed into it. The youngest kids were allowed in
first to start hunting for change, then older kids. Some of the 8 to12
year olds would keep going through the pile for hours.

Various relay races: I particularly enjoy the water ones: each team
has an empty glass and a table spoon; at the other end of the race
track is a bucket of water. The first person runs to the bucket, takes
a tablespoon of water, dumps it into the glass and hands the tablespoon
to the next person in line; the first team to get their glass filled
wins.

Raw egg toss: (doesn't work for very young kids) Pairs of people stand
in two lines, about three feed apart. One person in each pair is given
one raw egg. One at a time (so everyone can watch) the egg is tossed to
the second person. After the first toss, the people who tossed the egg
step back one giant step, and the eggs are tossed back (again, one at a
time). When an egg breaks, the pair steps out. The last pair with an
intact egg wins. This one is messy, but a great game for adults and
older kids together, provided the adults have a decent sense of humor!
(I've played it where each pair had to be a parent/child pair.) (This
can be done with water balloons, too -- I just think the eggs adds a
dimension to the mess that the kids, especially, really love.)

If this is a very large crowd and you are looking for carnival types of
games, it's an entirely different situation -- in that case, how big is
your budget?

meh
--
Children won't care how much you know until they know how much you care

"Hilbert" wrote:

Our neighborhood has annual pig roast and celebration, a part of which is
a parade with a fire truck and a couple of hours of "games" for the kids.

How fun!

In a moment of insanity, I volunteered to co-chair the kids games
committee. Any ideas on fun, multi-age games that easily and safely
executed by volunteers?

These 2 options might seem unsanitary to you. We have used it for a long
time in our schools. It hasn't occured to me until lately that it might be
"gross".

1. Put a piece of bubble gum (has to be either balls or 'double bubble' so
it's thick enough) in a big plate full of powdered sugar. It works like a
relay race. One kid goes and gets theirs, heads back while an adult puts
another piece of gum in, and the next kid comes and so on. I'm sure you
could use another item instead of gum if that is a concern.

2. Is just like #1 only you use swedish fish in water. It is VERY fun and
challenging.

Other options:
3. Raw egg on a spoon relay. They walk to a certain point and back and pass
the egg to the next kid. If the egg breaks, you are out. The team that has
the most # of kids go without breaking the egg, or gets through the whole
team first wins.

4. Sack races are always fun.

5. Dress up race. You have a pair of large pants and a large shirt and any
accessories opposite each line of players. (So you will need more than one
of each. Each team needs their own 'set') One player runs down and dresses
in all of the required accessories and does 4 hula hoops (or you could say 4
jump ropes), undresses and comes back. The next person goes, etc.

6. Like someone suggest with water ballons, you have a chair opposite the
line of children and put the balloon on it to pop. Actually, this is very
fun with large regular balloons. People bounce all over, the balloons get
loose, some people just can NOT pop it. Pretty funny! Works as a relay.
First team to pop all of their balloons wins.

7. Small obstacle course. Use tires to hop through, a slip n' slide to slide
through. One of those cheap tunnels to have to go through. Chairs to jump
over. Wood on bricks for a balance beam. Etc. This would best be done on
grass but I wouldn't consider it dangerous.

***I would suggest putting people in *even* teams (age, size, and gender
wise) before you start the party. Give everyone a number or color (if you
work this route, you can have them wear the color shirt for their team). You
would use these teams for all relay events, etc.

HTH!
-Kara

Leslie

In a moment of insanity, I volunteered to co-chair the kids games
committee. Any ideas on fun, multi-age games that easily and safely
executed by volunteers?

OK, bear with me if I get wordy ... I just did this this past weekend!

1) If possible, have a way the kids can identify with teams. At our picnic
we had a nice budget, so I got tie-die hats from Oriental Trading, and the
color of the hat was the team each child was on. But you could do anything
.... stamps, fake tatoos, stickers ...

2) Recruit a (grown-up) team captain for each team, to explain the games to
the kids and get them somewhat organized. Give them a stamp or sticker, too.
Pick people who have enthusiasm! This worked *really* well for us. Also
encourage all adults to get involved. They'll have fun, too.

3) Games ...
We did for relays: a sack race, ping-pong ball on a spoon race, transport a
tennis ball without using your hands or arms, run with a bean-bag on your
head, and fill a bucket with water squeezed from a big carwash sponge. We
also played dog-and-cat (kids on different sides, one side is dogs and the
other is cats ... they walk towards each other acting like dogs/cats and
then someone yells "cats chase dogs" or "dogs chase cats" and they sort of
play tag. We also did water balloon toss and had 4-5 of those zillion-bubble
makers for the littler ones to pop bubbles.

We didn't do *anything* with eggs! Ewww!

4) Winning and losing ... I did not have any prizes. I just announced "the
purple team won!" and moved on to the next game. Prizes halt not only the
momentum of the games but also the enthusiasm. The only "prize" we did was
for the older kids ... whoever picked up the most water balloon shreds got
to get their dinner first. I thought folks would complain about no prizes
(because with this group, at indoor parties, the kids get stuff for
"winning" the games), but no one said a word about no prizes.

Have fun!
--
Marnie
--

Face painting.
Making necklaces and stuff; other arts and crafts.
Relay races.
Three-legged races.
Basketball shots for little kids (you just need a little portable baskedball
play thing).

If you have volleyball, soccer, baseball or basketball facilities, use them.
You can make a family event with these as well.

Kickball (it is like baseball, but you use a soccerball (or volleyball or
football or red schoolyard ball) instead of a baseball and bat.

Jeff

We've had lots of success with sack races (use sturdy sacks!) and with
the Limbo. Both of these have worked with kids as young as 4 years old.

--Beth Kevles

http://web.mit.edu/kevles/www/nomilk.html -- a page for the milk-allergic
Disclaimer: Nothing in this message should be construed as medical
advice. Please consult with your own medical practicioner.