40 games
Checked October 2026

4th of July Party Games

Lawn games, team relays, water games with no pool, a bike parade and quiet games for the wait at dusk.

More filters

Players

Show all 40

Shade Is Safe for Five1. Agree on the edges of the game: the fence, the driveway, the hedge.2. One player is it. Any patch of shade is safe: under a tree, beside the shed, under a picnic umbrella.3. A runner may stand in shade only while counting aloud to five, and must then cross sunlight to another patch.4. A tagged runner becomes it. As the afternoon goes on, the shade moves and so does the game.Youngest player: age 5. Players: 4 to 20. You need: nothing.
Deliver a Paper Star to Every Lawn Chair1. Count the people watching and cut exactly that many paper stars. Share the stars out among the riders, in baskets or taped to handlebars.2. On the last lap, riders stop at each lawn chair, one at a time, and hand over a star.3. Nobody watching may get two, and nobody may be missed.4. If every chair has one star and the baskets are empty at the finish, the whole parade wins.Youngest player: age 4. Players: 3 to 24. You need: paper stars, one for each person watching.
Wagon Freight Relay1. Each team has a wagon at the start and a pile of freight at the far end of the lawn: a cooler pack, a ball, a rolled towel, a watering can.2. The first runner pulls the empty wagon to the pile, loads one thing and pulls it home.3. The next runner unloads it and takes the wagon back for the next thing.4. Freight that falls out is reloaded where it fell. The first team with all of its freight home wins. Nobody rides in the wagon.Youngest player: age 4. Players: 4 to 20. You need: a wagon and the same four things for each team.

Next step One-minute games for the 4th

All 40 games

Lawn games for all ages 8

Hit the Coin on the Sidewalk Crack 1. Two players stand at the far edges of two sidewalk squares, facing each other, with a coin lying on the crack between the squares. 2. Take turns to throw a bouncy ball so that it hits the coin on the bounce and carries on to the other player, who catches it. 3. Score one point for a hit and two if the coin flips over. Put the coin back on the crack after every hit. 4. The first player to eleven wins and stays on. Small children stand one square closer. Youngest player: age 5. Players: 2 to 12. You need: a coin, a bouncy ball and a sidewalk.
Knock Down Only Your Color 1. Stand nine plastic bottles in a square, three wrapped in red paper, three in white and three in blue, all mixed up. 2. Teams take turns to roll one ball from six steps away. 3. A team scores a point for each bottle of its own color that falls and loses a point for each bottle of another color. Stand all of the bottles up again after every roll. 4. The first team to seven points wins. Small children roll from halfway. Youngest player: age 4. Players: 3 to 18. You need: nine plastic bottles, red, white and blue paper, tape and a ball.
Make a Star From One Long Rope 1. A group of five to ten holds one long rope that is tied in a loop, each player with both hands on it. 2. Without letting go, the group must lay the rope on the grass in the shape of a five-pointed star. 3. Players may talk, slide their hands along the rope and step over it. 4. When the group says done, everyone lets go and steps back to look. Time it, and let the next group try to beat the clock. Youngest player: age 7. Players: 5 to 20. You need: a long rope tied in a loop.

Show all 40 games (37 more)

Lawn games for all ages, continued

Marching Band Freeze 1. Put on marching music, or have an adult beat a pot with a spoon. Everyone marches around the lawn. 2. When the music stops, the leader calls drummer, trumpet or baton, and everyone freezes in that pose. 3. Anyone who strikes the wrong pose, or wobbles, becomes a judge for the next round. 4. The last marcher still in leads the next game. Youngest player: age 3. Players: 4 to 30. You need: music, or a pot and a spoon.
Shade Is Safe for Five 1. Agree on the edges of the game: the fence, the driveway, the hedge. 2. One player is it. Any patch of shade is safe: under a tree, beside the shed, under a picnic umbrella. 3. A runner may stand in shade only while counting aloud to five, and must then cross sunlight to another patch. 4. A tagged runner becomes it. As the afternoon goes on, the shade moves and so does the game. Youngest player: age 5. Players: 4 to 20. You need: nothing.
Team Hunt Around the Yard, One List a Team 1. Print one hunt list for each team, or write ten things that can be found at this party: something striped, a paper star, a red cup, a pinwheel, a watermelon seed. 2. Each team stays together, and its oldest player holds the hand of its youngest. 3. Teams point out or collect each thing and tick it off. Nothing is taken from a neighbor's yard. 4. The first team back at the picnic table with every line ticked wins, and the other teams finish their lists anyway. Youngest player: age 4. Players: 4 to 30. You need: a hunt list and a pencil for each team.
Three-Way Capture the Bandana 1. Split the yard into three wedges with rope or chalk, one for each team, and give each team a bandana in its color to guard at the back of its wedge. 2. Players raid either of the other wedges. A raider tagged in a rival wedge freezes there until a teammate tags them free. 3. A team scores when it carries a rival bandana back to its own wedge. 4. With three teams, two can gang up on the leader, so the lead keeps changing. The first team to make three captures wins. Youngest player: age 7. Players: 9 to 30. You need: three bandanas, and rope or chalk.
Three-Way Tug of War on a Y Rope 1. Tie three ropes together at one end so that they make a Y, and tie a bandana around the knot. Put three markers on the grass, each three big steps from the knot, one in front of each team. 2. The red, white and blue teams take a rope each. Nobody wraps rope around a hand or a waist. 3. On go, all three teams pull. 4. The first team to drag the bandana past its own marker wins. Match the teams by size, and put adults on every rope or on none. Youngest player: age 6. Players: 9 to 30. You need: three ropes, a bandana and three markers.

Relays in red, white and blue teams 8

Chalk Star Relay, a Line a Runner 1. Each team has a piece of chalk waiting at its own square of driveway, ten steps away. 2. The first runner draws one straight line of a five-pointed star and runs back. 3. Each runner adds one line. After five lines the star is closed, and the next five runners each color in one point. 4. The first team with five colored points wins. A team of fewer than ten keeps going around. Youngest player: age 5. Players: 6 to 20. You need: chalk and a driveway or sidewalk.
Change Your Gait When the Color Card Flips 1. A caller stands at the turn with three cards: red, white and blue. Red means run, white means walk backward and blue means hop. 2. Each runner sets off in the gait of the card the caller is holding up. 3. The caller may flip to a new card at any moment, and the runner must change at once. 4. A runner caught in the wrong gait takes three steps back. Tag the next runner at the line, and the first team home wins. Youngest player: age 5. Players: 6 to 24. You need: a red card, a white card and a blue card.
Cross the Lawn on Two Picnic Blankets 1. Each team stands on one picnic blanket at the start and holds a second. 2. The team lays the second blanket ahead, and everyone steps across onto it. 3. Someone reaches back, picks up the first blanket and passes it forward, and so on across the lawn. Nobody may touch the grass. 4. A foot on the grass sends that team back one blanket. The first team to reach the far side wins. Youngest player: age 4. Players: 6 to 24. You need: two picnic blankets or beach towels for each team.
Hang the Line in Red, White, Blue Order 1. String a clothesline as high as the smallest player can reach. Give each team a basket of red, white and blue cloths, the same number of each, and a cup of clothespins. 2. The first runner pegs up a red cloth and runs back. 3. The next pegs a white cloth beside it, the next a blue one, and so on in that order. 4. A cloth out of order must be moved by the next runner before they hang their own. The first team with an empty basket wins. Youngest player: age 5. Players: 6 to 24. You need: a clothesline, clothespins and red, white and blue cloths.
Lawn Chair Relay: Unfold, Sit, Fold 1. Each team lines up behind a start line, with one folded camp chair at a marker ten steps away. 2. The first runner runs to the chair, unfolds it, sits down with both feet off the grass, stands, folds it flat again and runs back. 3. Tag the next runner. 4. The first team home wins. Use light chairs that fold without pinching, and have an adult do the folding for any runner under six. Youngest player: age 5. Players: 6 to 24. You need: a light folding chair and a marker for each team.
One-Handed Bandana Hand-Off 1. The baton is the team bandana, tied around the first runner's wrist. 2. The runner goes around a marker and back, then holds out that wrist. 3. The next runner unties the bandana, and the two tie it onto the new wrist, each using one hand only. The knot must hold. 4. If the bandana falls off on the way, the runner comes back to have it tied again. The first team with the bandana on the wrist of its last runner at the finish wins. Youngest player: age 6. Players: 6 to 24. You need: a bandana and a marker for each team.
Spell JULY, a Letter a Runner 1. For each team, write the letters J, U, L and Y on four paper plates and scatter them face down at the far end of the lawn. 2. The first runner turns over one plate. If it is the J, they bring it home. If not, they turn it face down again and run back with empty hands. 3. The next runner hunts for the next letter the team needs. 4. The first team to lay out JULY in order wins. Runners may tell teammates what they saw. Youngest player: age 5. Players: 4 to 20. You need: four paper plates and a marker for each team.
Wagon Freight Relay 1. Each team has a wagon at the start and a pile of freight at the far end of the lawn: a cooler pack, a ball, a rolled towel, a watering can. 2. The first runner pulls the empty wagon to the pile, loads one thing and pulls it home. 3. The next runner unloads it and takes the wagon back for the next thing. 4. Freight that falls out is reloaded where it fell. The first team with all of its freight home wins. Nobody rides in the wagon. Youngest player: age 4. Players: 4 to 20. You need: a wagon and the same four things for each team.

Water games with no pool 8

Arc the Hose Over the Clothesline 1. String a clothesline at head height and set a bucket on the far side, a few steps beyond it. 2. The sprayer stands on the near side with the hose and must send the water up over the line and down into the bucket. 3. The rest of the team calls directions: farther, shorter, left. 4. Each team gets twenty seconds. Mark the water level on the bucket with tape after each team, and the highest mark wins. Youngest player: age 5. Players: 2 to 20. You need: a hose, a clothesline, a bucket and tape.
Biggest Bubble From a String Loop 1. Thread a long string through two drinking straws and tie it in a loop, so that the straws work as handles. Mix dish soap and water in a wide tub. 2. Dip the whole loop, lift it out with the straws together, then pull them apart and walk backward. 3. A bubble counts when it closes and floats free. 4. Each player has three tries, and the judges show the size of the best one with their arms. Keep the soapy tub on the grass, where a spill is not slippery. Youngest player: age 4. Players: 2 to 16. You need: string, two drinking straws, dish soap and a wide tub of water.
Driveway Ice Cube Hockey 1. Chalk a rink on the driveway about ten steps long, with a goal an arm's length wide at each end. 2. Two players, or two pairs, take a broom each. The puck is an ice cube. 3. Sweep the cube into the other goal. Brooms stay on the ground, and nobody kicks the puck. 4. The puck melts as it is played, so the end is sudden death: the last goal scored before the cube is gone wins the match. Keep a bowl of spare pucks in the cooler for the next pair. Youngest player: age 5. Players: 2 to 12. You need: chalk, two brooms and a bowl of ice cubes.
Mist Medic Freeze Tag 1. Two players are it. One of the runners is the medic and carries a spray bottle set to mist. 2. A tagged runner freezes like a statue with one hand held out. 3. The medic thaws a statue by misting the outstretched hand, and cannot be tagged while kneeling beside a statue. 4. The game ends when every runner is frozen or the bottle is empty. Refill it and pick a new medic. Mist hands and arms, never faces. Youngest player: age 5. Players: 6 to 24. You need: a spray bottle of water.
Paint the Whole Fence Panel Wet at Once 1. Each team gets a bucket of water, a wide paintbrush for every player and one panel of a wooden fence, or a square of driveway marked in chalk. 2. On go, teams paint the panel with water. 3. A panel is finished only when every part of it is dark and wet at the same moment, and a judge checks from top to bottom. 4. In hot sun the top dries while the bottom is being painted, so the team has to plan who paints where. The first panel to pass wins. Youngest player: age 3. Players: 2 to 16. You need: a bucket of water and a wide paintbrush for each player.
Sink the Lid Fleet 1. Float ten metal jar lids, open side up, in a dishpan of water: five marked with tape for one player and five plain for the other. 2. Each player has a squeeze bottle of water. 3. On go, each squirts water into the other player's lids to fill and sink them. Squirting your own lids to push them out of the way is fair, and touching a lid is not. 4. The first player to sink all five rival lids wins. Scoop the fleet out and float it again for the next pair. Youngest player: age 4. Players: 2 to 16. You need: a dishpan of water, ten metal jar lids, tape and two squeeze bottles.
Spray the Ball Off the Other End of the Picnic Table 1. Put a table tennis ball in the middle of a picnic table. Two players stand at opposite ends, each with a spray bottle set to a jet. 2. On go, each sprays the ball to drive it off the other player's end. 3. Hands and bottles may not cross the edge of the table. A ball that rolls off a side goes back to the middle. 4. The first to score three goals wins and stays on to face the next player. Youngest player: age 5. Players: 2 to 16. You need: a picnic table, a table tennis ball and two spray bottles.
Wet Footprints Down the Driveway 1. Set a tub of water at the top of a shaded stretch of driveway or sidewalk. An adult checks with the back of a hand that the pavement is cool enough for bare feet. 2. A walker dips both feet and walks heel to toe in a line, leaving prints. 3. The trail counts only while its first print can still be seen. A judge watches the first print and shouts stop when it has dried. 4. Count the prints. The longest trail wins. Walk, never run, on wet pavement. Youngest player: age 4. Players: 2 to 16. You need: a tub of water and a shaded driveway or sidewalk.

Bike and wagon parade 8

Decorate From One Shared Box in Twenty Minutes 1. Put everything in one box in the middle of the driveway: crepe paper, ribbon, paper stars, tape, clothespins and playing cards for the spokes. 2. Every rider has twenty minutes to decorate a bike, a scooter, a wagon or a stroller from the box. 3. A rider may take only one thing at a time, so the best things get shared. 4. An adult checks every entry before it rolls: nothing loose near a chain, a wheel or a brake, and helmets on. Youngest player: age 3. Players: 3 to 30. You need: a box of crepe paper, ribbon, paper stars, tape, clothespins and playing cards.
Deliver a Paper Star to Every Lawn Chair 1. Count the people watching and cut exactly that many paper stars. Share the stars out among the riders, in baskets or taped to handlebars. 2. On the last lap, riders stop at each lawn chair, one at a time, and hand over a star. 3. Nobody watching may get two, and nobody may be missed. 4. If every chair has one star and the baskets are empty at the finish, the whole parade wins. Youngest player: age 4. Players: 3 to 24. You need: paper stars, one for each person watching.
Judging Cards With a Ribbon for Every Rider 1. Before the parade, the judges write one card for each class: most stripes, most stars, loudest spokes, best wagon, best teamwork, best wave, and one more for every rider beyond six. 2. Three judges sit in lawn chairs along the route. 3. After the last lap, the judges put their heads together and give every card to a different rider. 4. Each rider comes forward to be handed a paper ribbon with the card's words on it. Nobody goes home without one. Youngest player: age 3. Players: 4 to 30. You need: cards, a marker and a paper ribbon for every rider.
Kitchen Band Leads the Parade 1. Hand out pots, wooden spoons, lids, and shakers made from plastic tubs of rice with the lids taped shut by an adult. 2. The band marches on foot at the head of the parade, behind a drum major with a baton made from a paper towel tube. 3. Baton up means play, baton held flat means march in silence, and baton down means stop and play on the spot. 4. Swap the drum major at every corner. The riders stay one bike length behind the band. Youngest player: age 3. Players: 4 to 20. You need: pots, wooden spoons, lids, shakers and a paper towel tube.
Stroller and Teddy Division 1. Riders too young for wheels get a class of their own. Each decorates a stroller, a push toy or a wagon pulled by a grown-up, with a soft toy as the passenger. 2. This division leads the parade at walking pace. 3. Each child tells the announcer the passenger's name, and it is read out as they pass. 4. Every entry gets a paper ribbon for something true: softest passenger, most stars, best wave. Youngest player: age 2. Players: 2 to 15. You need: strollers or push toys, soft toys, decorations and paper ribbons.
Two Announcers at the Reviewing Stand 1. Two players sit at a table at the end of the route, with wooden spoons for microphones. 2. As each entry passes, one announcer says who is riding, and the other describes the decorations in one admiring sentence. 3. The announcers may not use the same describing word twice in the whole parade. 4. The crowd keeps count of the repeats. Swap announcers for the second lap. Youngest player: age 6. Players: 4 to 30. You need: a table and two wooden spoons.
Wagon Float on a Theme Drawn From a Hat 1. Each wagon crew of two or three draws a theme from a hat: the beach, a picnic, the county fair, a rocket, a garden. 2. Crews have fifteen minutes to turn the wagon into a float on that theme, with whatever is in the yard and in the decorating box. 3. In the parade, one crew member pulls and the others walk beside the float. Soft toys may ride, and people may not. 4. The crowd guesses each theme as the float goes by. Youngest player: age 4. Players: 4 to 24. You need: a wagon for each crew, theme slips in a hat and things to decorate with.
When the Band Stops, the Wheels Stop 1. Riders circle the driveway, or the closed end of the street, at walking speed and all in the same direction. 2. An adult plays music or beats a pot. When the sound stops, every rider must stop with both feet on the ground. 3. Anyone still rolling after a count of two pulls over and joins the band for the next round. 4. The last rider left in wins. Helmets on, and nobody rides where a car can come. Youngest player: age 4. Players: 3 to 20. You need: bikes or scooters, helmets, and music or a pot and a spoon.

Quiet games before the fireworks 8

Blanket Against Blanket Trivia 1. Each blanket is a team. The quizmaster reads a question from a list brought from home, by flashlight if need be. 2. Each blanket whispers and sends one runner to say its answer in the quizmaster's ear. 3. Every blanket with the right answer scores a point, so there is no need to be first. 4. After ten questions, the youngest player on the winning blanket chooses the spot for next year. Youngest player: age 7. Players: 4 to 30. You need: a list of questions and a flashlight.
Draw Six Bursts, Tick Them Off 1. Before dark, each player folds a sheet into six boxes and draws one kind of firework in each: a ring, one that droops like a willow, a spiral, a heart, one that crackles, one that whistles. 2. Players may not copy their neighbor's six. 3. During the show, mark a box each time that kind goes up. 4. The first player with all six marked whispers done. In the dark, a mark is a small tear in the edge of the box. Youngest player: age 5. Players: 2 to 20. You need: paper and crayons.
Five Dusk Things Before the First Boom 1. The leader names five things that happen as it gets dark: a porch light comes on, someone puts on a sweater, a dog barks, a baby falls asleep, the first star shows. 2. Everyone watches and listens from the blanket. 3. The first player to notice one and point it out quietly claims it. 4. When all five are claimed, the leader names five more. The player with the most claims at the first boom wins. Youngest player: age 4. Players: 2 to 20. You need: nothing.
Join the Hum When You Know It 1. One blanket picks a tune that everybody knows and starts to hum it softly, with no words. 2. The other blankets listen. As soon as a blanket knows the tune, it joins the hum, without saying the name. 3. Keep humming until every blanket has joined in. 4. The last blanket to join picks the next tune. A blanket that joins in with the wrong tune hums it alone for one line. Youngest player: age 3. Players: 4 to 30. You need: nothing.
Paper Plate Medals for the Day 1. Each blanket gets paper plates, crayons and a list of the day's games. 2. For each game, the blanket agrees on one award that is not for winning: best cheer, kindest loser, muddiest knees, bravest try. 3. Draw the medal on a plate and write the name on it. Nobody may be given a second plate until everyone has one. 4. Hold the ceremony in the last of the light, with applause for every plate. Youngest player: age 4. Players: 4 to 30. You need: paper plates and crayons.
Red Thing, White Thing, Blue Thing: The Blanket Chain 1. Sit in a circle on the blankets. The first player says to the fireworks I brought, and names something red. 2. The next player repeats it and adds something white. The third adds something blue, and then the colors start again. 3. Each player repeats the whole list in order before adding to it. 4. A player who slips starts a new chain. See how long a chain the blanket can build before dark. Youngest player: age 5. Players: 3 to 12. You need: nothing.
What Is Left in the Cooler? 1. Close the cooler. 2. Each blanket, working together in whispers, writes a list of everything it believes is still inside, with numbers: four juice boxes, two apples, one bag of ice. 3. An adult opens the cooler and unpacks it onto a towel, one thing at a time. 4. A blanket scores a point for each thing it listed and a bonus point for each right number. Then everything goes back in before the ice melts. Youngest player: age 5. Players: 4 to 24. You need: the cooler, a towel, paper and pencils.
Write Down the Minute of the First Boom 1. Once the blankets are down, everyone writes their name and the exact minute they think the first firework will go up. No two guesses may be the same. 2. An adult holds the list and the only watch that counts. 3. At the first boom, the adult reads out the time. 4. The closest guess picks the first treat from the cooler. Then guess the minute the show will end. Youngest player: age 5. Players: 2 to 30. You need: paper, a pencil and a watch.

How this list was compiled: Our suggestions for a back-yard or block party on the Fourth of July, from toddlers to grandparents. The wording, the ages and the player counts are ours. No game uses fireworks, sparklers, balloons or a flag (teams wear bandanas), and nothing is eaten against the clock. The lines about helmets, riding only where no car can come, cool pavement and an adult checking each decorated bike are this page's own safety rules, not official ones. The list states nothing about the history of the day. Licence: own work

How it works

These 4th of July party games fill a whole day in the yard or on the block, and each gives the youngest age it suits. No game uses fireworks, sparklers or balloons, and nothing is eaten against the clock.

Read the full guide

The day in order

1. Morning: decorate, then run the parade. 2. Midday: lawn games, then Relays in red, white and blue teams. 3. Hot afternoon: Water games with no pool. 4. Dusk: blankets down, and a quiet game until the first boom.

Three teams, mixed by age

Hand out red, white and blue bandanas as families arrive, one color after another, so that every team gets its share of each age.

Save the water games for the hottest hour: nobody minds losing when losing means getting wet.

Questions and answers

What games can you play at a 4th of July party?

For a yard of mixed ages, start with Knock Down Only Your Color, split into three teams for Wagon Freight Relay, cool off with Sink the Lid Fleet and end on the blankets with Draw Six Bursts, Tick Them Off.

How do you run a 4th of July bike parade?

Give riders one shared box of decorations and twenty minutes, send the strollers and wagons of the youngest first, and put a kitchen band at the front. Judging Cards With a Ribbon for Every Rider sends each child home with one.

What 4th of July games work for toddlers?

7 of the 40 start at age 2 or 3: Stroller and Teddy Division, Marching Band Freeze, Paint the Whole Fence Panel Wet at Once, Join the Hum When You Know It and three more parts of the parade. Age 3 shows them all.

What can kids do while waiting for fireworks?

Guess the minute of the first boom, draw six kinds of burst to mark off during the show, or play Five Dusk Things Before the First Boom. Quiet games before the fireworks has eight for a blanket.