Interactive Physical Games for Kids

Blindfolded Water Balloon Catch

• Pair children into groups of two and give each group five water balloons. One person on the team throws the balloon while the other must catch it, blindfolded. The thrower must call out instructions to help the catcher know where the balloon will be and when to catch it. The team that catches the most water balloons, without popping them, wins.

Drop the Toothpick

• This game is played in teams, relay-race style. Each team has a plastic soda bottle and a box of toothpicks. Contestants race one member of their team at a time to the soda bottle, where they must drop a toothpick into the bottle. The person then races back and tags the next player. The first team to successfully get a set number of toothpicks into the bottle wins.

Octopus Tag

• Establish boundaries for the game in a gym or on a field. "It" stands in the middle while the rest of the children stand at one end of the playing field. When It says go, the children try to race to the opposite side of the field without getting tagged. Every time It tags someone, that person sits on the floor and tries to help tag the other children running by. Continue calling children back and forth across the field, with the octopus arms helping tag until there's one person left. That person gets to be the new It.

Sock Wrestling

• Children sit in a circle and count off so each person has a number. Two numbers are drawn from a bowl and those two children remove their shoes, but keep on their socks, and go to the middle of the circle. The children face each other, on their knees, and try to pull off the other person's socks before they lose their own.

500

• Children stand together within throwing distance from one child who has a ball (a football or baseball). The child throws the ball toward the group and calls out "I have 100 points up for grabs" (or any number from 50 to 500). The other children race to catch it. Whoever catches it gets the points, but dropping the ball costs those points. The first child to earn 500 points gets to be the next thrower.