• 70 games

Outdoor Party Games for Kids, From Backyard to Block Party

Tag, relays, chalk and water games for a yard, a park or a closed street: press Pick 3 new games.

Outdoor Party Games for Kids, From Backyard to Block Party

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  1. Hoop Contest by AgeEveryone in an age group starts hooping on the whistle, and the last hoop still spinning wins the heat. Run a second contest for tricks: around a neck, an arm or a knee, or walking while hooping. Invite the grandparents to enter. Players: 4 to 30. Time: 8 min. Props: a plastic hoop each.
  2. Bike and Scooter Slalom Time TrialSet a line of cones down the closed street and chalk a finish box. Riders go one at a time against a stopwatch, with two seconds added for every cone touched. Post the times by age on a chalk scoreboard so a six-year-old is not racing a twelve-year-old. Players: 4 to 30. Time: 15 min. Props: cones, chalk, a stopwatch and helmets.
  3. Bandana Tail GrabEvery player tucks a bandana into the back of a waistband with most of it hanging out. On go, grab other tails while guarding yours, with no holding your own tail down. A player who loses a tail keeps playing and can still collect. Most tails after three minutes wins. Players: 6 to 30. Time: 8 min. Props: a bandana or a strip of cloth each.

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Tag and chasing games 14

  • Bandage Tag When you are tagged, you clap a hand over the spot like a bandage and keep running. A second tag takes your other hand. On the third, you go to the hospital tree and do ten star jumps to heal, then you are back in with both hands free. Players: 6 to 25. Time: 8 min. Props: none.
  • Bandana Tail Grab Every player tucks a bandana into the back of a waistband with most of it hanging out. On go, grab other tails while guarding yours, with no holding your own tail down. A player who loses a tail keeps playing and can still collect. Most tails after three minutes wins. Players: 6 to 30. Time: 8 min. Props: a bandana or a strip of cloth each.
  • Bubble Chase Pop Count A grown-up blows bubbles across the lawn and the little ones chase them down, counting each pop aloud. For the second round, pop only with an elbow. For the third, only with a knee. Three-year-olds can join with a grown-up beside them. Players: 2 to 12. Time: 5 min. Props: bubble mix and a wand.
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Tag and chasing games, continued

  • Cops and Robbers With a Hoop Jail Split into two teams. Cops tag robbers and walk them to the jail, a plastic hoop on the grass. A free robber can spring the whole jail by tagging a prisoner without being caught. The round ends when every robber is inside, then the teams swap. Players: 8 to 24. Time: 15 min. Props: a plastic hoop or a rope circle for the jail.
  • Crows and Cranes Two teams face each other a few steps apart, the crows and the cranes. The caller drags out the first sound, "crrrr", then finishes the word. The team that is named turns and runs for its home fence while the other team chases. Anyone tagged before the fence changes sides. Players: 8 to 30. Time: 8 min. Props: none.
  • Everybody's It There is no single tagger: everyone can tag everyone. If you are tagged, crouch down and watch the player who got you. The moment that player is tagged by someone else, you are free again. It never really ends, so call time after five minutes. Players: 6 to 30. Time: 5 min. Props: none.
  • Fox and Geese on a Chalk Wheel Draw a big wheel with eight spokes on the driveway or the closed street. The fox starts in the hub and the geese run only along the lines. A tagged goose becomes a fox too, and the spots where a spoke meets the rim are safe for one goose at a time. Players: 5 to 16. Time: 10 min. Props: sidewalk chalk.
  • Freeze Tag With Butterfly Taps One child is it, and anyone tagged freezes on the spot until a free player touches them. Agree on butterfly taps first: a light touch on the shoulder or upper back, never a push. Swap the tagger every two minutes so nobody is it for long. Players: 6 to 25. Time: 8 min. Props: none.
  • Hide-and-Seek With a Home Tree The seeker counts to thirty at the home tree, then goes looking. A hider who is spotted can still race the seeker back to the tree, and whoever touches it first wins the dash. Walk the boundary together before you start, so nobody hides past the gate. Players: 4 to 15. Time: 15 min. Props: none.
  • Marco Polo on the Lawn A dry-land cousin of blind man's buff. Mark a small square of flat lawn with a rope. The seeker wears a scarf blindfold and calls "Marco", and everyone inside the rope has to answer "Polo". A grown-up walks beside the seeker as a spotter, and a tagged player takes the scarf. Players: 4 to 10. Time: 8 min. Props: a scarf and a rope for the boundary.
  • Shadow Tag on a Sunny Lawn The tagger catches you by stepping on your shadow, so nobody gets touched at all. Play late in the afternoon when shadows are long. Standing in the shade of a tree is safe for a count of five, then you have to run. Players: 4 to 20. Time: 8 min. Props: none.
  • Sharks and Minnows Across the Lawn Minnows line up along one fence and the shark stands in the middle. On "swim", everyone crosses to the far side. A tagged minnow joins the shark for the next crossing. The last minnow left is the first shark of the next game. Players: 6 to 30. Time: 8 min. Props: none.
  • Sneak the Garden Gnome A version of grandmother's footsteps with a heist. The guard stands by a garden gnome with their back turned, and everyone creeps up. When the guard spins round, all freeze. Once someone lifts the gnome, the group hides it behind their backs and passes it along, and the guard gets one guess at the carrier after each turn. Players: 5 to 15. Time: 12 min. Props: a garden gnome or any toy.
  • Sponge Splash Tag The tagger carries a wet sponge and tags by tossing it underarm below the shoulders. Whoever is hit picks up the sponge, dunks it in the bucket and becomes the tagger. Keep the bucket in the middle, so every new tagger starts from the same place. An adult stays at the bucket and empties it after the game. Players: 5 to 20. Time: 8 min. Props: a bucket of water and two big sponges.

Races, relays and jumping games 21

  • Back-to-Back Ball Carry Pairs stand back to back with a ball squeezed between them and no hands. Shuffle to the far cone and back without dropping it. A dropped ball goes back in where it fell. Sideways turns out to be faster than forward. Players: 4 to 24. Time: 8 min. Props: a ball per pair.
  • Beanbag on the Head Walk Walk from the start line to the fence and back with a beanbag balanced on your head and your hands by your sides. If it falls, freeze, put it back and carry on. It is a slow race, which is why small children can beat big ones. Players: 2 to 20. Time: 5 min. Props: a beanbag each.
  • Bike and Scooter Slalom Time Trial Set a line of cones down the closed street and chalk a finish box. Riders go one at a time against a stopwatch, with two seconds added for every cone touched. Post the times by age on a chalk scoreboard so a six-year-old is not racing a twelve-year-old. Players: 4 to 30. Time: 15 min. Props: cones, chalk, a stopwatch and helmets.
  • Charades Relay Across the Lawn Two teams wait at one fence and a grown-up stands at the other with a stack of charades cards. A runner from each team sprints over, reads a card, runs back and acts it out without a word. Once the team guesses it, the next runner goes. The first team through five cards wins. Read the card in a whisper to children who cannot read yet. Players: 6 to 20. Time: 12 min. Props: charades cards for kids.
  • Crab Out, Bear Back Relay Teams line up behind a start line. Each runner goes out as a crab, belly up on hands and feet, and comes back as a bear on all fours, then tags the next in line. Let the smallest children run a shorter course. Players: 6 to 24. Time: 8 min. Props: none.
  • Curb-to-Curb Sprint Heats The simplest block party game there is. Line up by age at one curb and sprint to the other on the whistle: fours and fives first, then sixes and sevens, and so on up. Finish with a final of the heat winners, with head starts chalked by age. Players: 6 to 50. Time: 8 min. Props: none.
  • Gardener's Relay At the far end sits a flowerpot for each team. Runners pull on garden gloves and a sun hat, carry a watering can to the pot, plant one plastic flower and run back to hand everything over. The first pot with a flower from every gardener wins. Players: 6 to 20. Time: 8 min. Props: gloves, a hat, a watering can, a pot and plastic flowers per team.
  • Hoop Contest by Age Everyone in an age group starts hooping on the whistle, and the last hoop still spinning wins the heat. Run a second contest for tricks: around a neck, an arm or a knee, or walking while hooping. Invite the grandparents to enter. Players: 4 to 30. Time: 8 min. Props: a plastic hoop each.
  • Hoop Rolling Race Stand a plastic hoop on its edge and bowl it along with the flat of your hand. Race to the fence and back, and a hoop that falls over is picked up where it dropped. Older kids can steer theirs around a cone on the way. Players: 2 to 12. Time: 8 min. Props: a plastic hoop each, or one per heat.
  • Kids Against Grown-Ups Rope Pull Use a rope made for tug of war, checked by an adult for knots and frays, with a ribbon tied at the middle. No more than eight kids pull at once against no more than four adults, two kids for every adult, and crews swap after each pull so everyone gets a turn. Pull the ribbon past your own cone to win, best of three. Nobody wraps the rope around a hand, wrist or waist. On the whistle both sides stop and lower the rope together; nobody lets go. Players: 6 to 36. Time: 8 min. Props: a tug of war rope, a ribbon, two cones and a whistle.
  • Leaky Cup Relay Poke five holes in the bottom of a plastic cup for each team. Runners fill the cup at the tub, hold it over their own head and run to tip what is left into the team bucket. The first bucket filled to the chalk line wins. An adult stays at the tub and empties it after the game. Players: 6 to 24. Time: 8 min. Props: a tub of water, a bucket and a holed cup per team.
  • Leapfrog Line Race Each team crouches in a line with heads tucked in. The child at the back vaults over every back to the front and crouches, then the next one goes. The first team to move its whole line past the far cone wins. Play on grass and keep teams the same height. Players: 6 to 24. Time: 5 min. Props: none.
  • Long Rope Run-Through Two grown-ups turn a long rope. First everyone runs straight through without it touching them. Next time through, each child takes one jump on the way, then two, then three. Anyone who stops the rope takes a turn on the handle. Players: 5 to 20. Time: 10 min. Props: a long jump rope.
  • Over and Under Ball Line Each team stands in a line, all facing forward. The ball goes backward over the first head, between the next pair of knees, over, under, to the end. The last player runs to the front and starts it again. First team back in its starting order wins. Players: 8 to 30. Time: 8 min. Props: a ball per team.
  • Over-the-Head Water Pass Teams sit in a line, one behind the other, each child holding a cup. The front player fills up from the tub and pours backward over their own head into the next cup, without looking. The last in line empties into a bucket. The fullest bucket after three minutes wins. An adult stays at the tub and empties it after the game. Players: 6 to 24. Time: 8 min. Props: a tub of water, a bucket per team and a cup each.
  • Pine Cone Pick-Up Dash Scatter fifty pine cones or plastic balls across the lawn and give each team a bucket. Players may carry one at a time. After two minutes, count the buckets. For the next round, carry them on a spoon. Players: 4 to 20. Time: 5 min. Props: fifty pine cones or plastic balls and two buckets.
  • Pool Noodle Pony Express Each team has one pool noodle pony and a mail bag. Riders gallop astride the noodle around a line of cones and back, then hand over the pony and the bag. No pool is needed, only the noodle. Players: 6 to 20. Time: 8 min. Props: a pool noodle and a small bag per team, and cones.
  • Slow Bike Race Chalk a lane for each rider down the closed street. The last rider to cross the finish line wins, and a foot on the ground or a wheel over the lane line puts you out. Helmets on, even at walking pace. Players: 3 to 8 per heat. Time: 5 min. Props: bikes, helmets and chalk.
  • Tic-Tac-Toe Hoop Relay Lay nine plastic hoops in a three-by-three grid at the far end. Two teams have three beanbags each in their own color. Runners take turns sprinting out to drop a beanbag in a hoop. Once all three are down, each runner moves one of their own instead. Three in a row wins. Players: 6 to 12. Time: 10 min. Props: nine hoops or chalk squares and six beanbags in two colors.
  • Wheelbarrow Race on Grass In pairs, one child walks on their hands while the partner holds their ankles. Race to the halfway cone, swap places and race back. Grass only, and match partners by size so nobody is tipped onto their nose. Players: 4 to 20. Time: 5 min. Props: none.
  • Would You Rather, Fence or Tree The caller reads a would you rather question and points: the first choice is the fence, the second is the big tree. Everyone runs to vote with their feet. Ask one child on each side why, then read the next one. There is no winner, which suits the youngest, and it burns off the cake. Players: 4 to 30. Time: 8 min. Props: none.

Ball and target games 14

  • Backyard Croquet, Nine Wickets Set nine wickets in a double diamond with a stake at each end. Up to six players have one ball each. Go down one side, hit the turning stake, come back up the other side and hit the first stake to finish. Through a wicket earns one more shot, and hitting another ball earns two. Players: 2 to 6. Time: 30 min. Props: a croquet set.
  • Beach Ball Keep-Up Record Everyone stands in a loose circle and keeps a beach ball in the air, counting each hit aloud. Nobody may hit it twice in a row. Chalk the record on the path and try to beat it. There are no teams, so nobody loses. Players: 3 to 20. Time: 5 min. Props: a beach ball.
  • Bedsheet Popcorn Shake-Off Everyone grips the edge of an old bedsheet. Tip a dozen soft balls into the middle and shake to make them pop. One half of the sheet tries to bounce them off, and the other half tries to keep them on. Finish with one big lift, and let the smallest kids run underneath. Players: 6 to 20. Time: 8 min. Props: an old bedsheet and a dozen soft balls.
  • Bottle Bowling on the Driveway Pour an inch of water into ten plastic bottles so they stand up, and set them in a triangle. Bowl a soft ball from ten steps away, two rolls a turn. Chalk the lane and the score on the driveway, and let the bowler who knocks them down set them up again. Players: 2 to 12. Time: 8 min. Props: ten plastic bottles, a soft ball and chalk.
  • Flying Disc Golf, Six Hoops Lay six plastic hoops around the garden as holes, numbered with chalk or paper plates, and mark a tee for each. Count the throws it takes to land the disc inside each hoop. Lowest total after six holes wins. Play in pairs to keep the course moving. Players: 2 to 12. Time: 20 min. Props: six hoops and a flying disc per pair.
  • Kickball on a Chalk Diamond Chalk four bases on the closed street or lay out jackets on the grass. The pitcher rolls a rubber playground ball along the ground, and the kicker boots it and runs the bases. A caught kick, a tag with the ball or the ball reaching a forced base first is an out. Three outs and the teams swap. Players: 8 to 24. Time: 30 min. Props: a rubber playground ball and chalk or four bases.
  • Ladder on the Lawn Toss Lay a ladder flat on the grass. The gap between the nearest rungs scores one, the next two, and so on to the far end. Each player throws three beanbags from behind a line. Little kids stand a big step closer. Players: 2 to 12. Time: 8 min. Props: a ladder laid flat and three beanbags.
  • Marbles in a Chalk Ring Ring taw on the patio. Chalk a circle as wide as your arm and put a dozen small marbles in the middle. From the edge, players take turns flicking a bigger shooter marble to knock the small ones out of the ring. Count what you knock out, and hand them all back at the end. Not for under-fives. Players: 2 to 6. Time: 12 min. Props: marbles, a shooter marble each and chalk.
  • Piggy in the Middle, Three Throws Two throwers stand ten steps apart with one child between them. Throw the ball back and forth, and if the piggy touches it, the thrower swaps in. With our three throws rule, nobody is stuck in the middle: after three clean throws the piggy swaps out anyway. Players: 3 to 9. Time: 8 min. Props: a soft ball.
  • Ring Toss on Garden Stakes Push five garden stakes into the lawn at different distances and tie a colored ribbon on each for its score. Players throw five rope rings from a line. Make rings from rope and tape if you have none, and put caps or tape on the stake tops. Players: 2 to 12. Time: 8 min. Props: five garden stakes with capped tops and five rope rings.
  • Rubber Horseshoes for Small Hands Use a rubber set, which is kind to toes. Pitch two shoes each from a line six steps from the stake. By our house scoring, a ringer is three points and the closest shoe within a hand span is one. First to eleven wins. Players: 2 to 8. Time: 15 min. Props: a rubber horseshoe set.
  • Six Bucket Toss Ladder Line up six buckets leading away from the throwing line. Land a ball in the first bucket and you move on to the second, and so on up the ladder. Everyone throws at once with their own ball, and the first to sink the sixth bucket wins. Players: 2 to 10. Time: 10 min. Props: six buckets and a small ball each.
  • Spud With a Soft Ball Give every player a number. One throws a soft ball straight up and calls a number while everyone scatters. The child whose number it is grabs the ball and shouts "spud", and all freeze. They take three giant steps toward anyone and throw below the waist. A hit gives the target a letter, a miss gives it to the thrower, and S-P-U-D puts you out. Players: 4 to 15. Time: 15 min. Props: a soft inflated ball.
  • Wet Sponge Bullseye Chalk a bullseye on a wall or a fence, with 10 in the middle, then 5, then 1. Players throw a wet sponge from behind a line, and the splat mark shows the score. Three throws each, and the mark dries in time for the next thrower. An adult stays at the bucket and empties it after the game. Players: 2 to 15. Time: 8 min. Props: chalk, a bucket of water and three sponges.

Water games without a pool 7

  • Bucket Brigade Fire Line Chalk a burning house at one end of the street and put a full tub at the other. Each team stands in a line between them and passes cups of water hand to hand, then sends the empties back. The first team to fill its bucket at the house puts out the fire. An adult stays at the tub and empties it after the game. Players: 10 to 40. Time: 10 min. Props: a tub of water, a bucket per team and plastic cups.
  • Drip, Drip, Drop Duck, duck, goose for a hot day. Children sit in a circle, and the picker walks round with a wet sponge, letting a drip fall on each head: "drip, drip, drip". On "drop", the picker squeezes the lot over one child, who jumps up and chases the picker once round the circle to the empty spot. An adult stays at the bucket and empties it after the game. Players: 6 to 20. Time: 8 min. Props: a bucket of water and a big sponge.
  • Frozen Treasure Rescue The night before, freeze plastic toys in a tub of water, each one too big to fit through a toilet-roll tube, so that nothing rescued is a choking risk. Turn the block out on a tray, and give each team squirt bottles of warm water and a little salt. They melt their way in and rescue the toys one by one. Count the rescues, then share them out. Players: 2 to 10. Time: 15 min. Props: a block of ice with toys frozen in, squirt bottles, salt and a tray.
  • Hose Stream Limbo A grown-up holds the hose so the stream makes a level bar of water. Children pass under it leaning backward, and the stream drops a little each round. Touching the water does not put you out. It only makes you wet, which is the point. Players: 3 to 20. Time: 8 min. Props: a garden hose and a grown-up to hold it.
  • Sprinkler Statues Children dance through the sprinkler while a grown-up stands at the tap. When the water stops, everyone freezes like a statue. The last one to freeze picks the next dance: robot, ballet, chicken. Move the sprinkler now and then so the lawn does not turn to mud. Players: 3 to 20. Time: 8 min. Props: a sprinkler and a grown-up at the tap.
  • Squirt Bottle Cup Race Thread a plastic cup onto each of two strings and tie the strings tight between two fence posts or trees. Racers squirt water into the cup to push it along the string to the far end. Run it as a knockout, and refill the bottles between heats. Players: 2 to 12. Time: 8 min. Props: two strings, two plastic cups and two squirt bottles.
  • Water Painting Guess It Hand out big paintbrushes and a pot of plain water. One child paints a picture on the fence or the patio, and the others have to guess it before it dries in the sun. Nothing to clean up, and the canvas resets itself. Players: 2 to 10. Time: 8 min. Props: paintbrushes and a pot of water.

Chalk, hunts and parades 14

  • Backyard Bingo Hunt Each pair gets a bingo card of things to spot outdoors: a feather, a spider web, something yellow, a bird on a wire, a cloud shaped like an animal. Cross off a square when both partners have seen it. Nothing is picked or carried. The first line wins, then play on for a full card. Players: 2 to 20. Time: 15 min. Props: a printed bingo card and a crayon per pair.
  • Bug Safari With a Tally Card Give each pair a tally card with pictures: ant, beetle, butterfly, worm, spider, snail, bee. They explore the garden for ten minutes and make a mark for each one they see. Look but do not touch, and put back any stone you turn over. Players: 2 to 16. Time: 15 min. Props: a tally card and a pencil per pair, and a magnifying glass if you have one.
  • Chalk Maze With Dead Ends Older kids get fifteen minutes to chalk a maze across the driveway or the street, with one true path and plenty of dead ends. Younger kids then walk it, or ride it on scooters. Time each run, and let the builders shout "warmer" and "colder" to anyone who is stuck. Players: 4 to 20. Time: 15 min. Props: sidewalk chalk and a stopwatch.
  • Chalk Shadow Tracing In pairs, one child strikes a pose on the driveway while the partner chalks around the shadow, feet and all. Write the time inside it. Come back after lunch, stand in the same footprints and try to fit your shadow: it has moved, and it has changed size. Players: 2 to 12. Time: 10 min. Props: sidewalk chalk and a sunny day.
  • Chalk Town for Bikes and Scooters Chalk a town on the closed street: roads with center lines, a crosswalk, stop signs, a gas station, a car wash made of two kids with spray bottles. Riders follow the rules of the road, and a chalk traffic officer hands out tickets for speeding. Players: 4 to 30. Time: 30 min. Props: sidewalk chalk, bikes or scooters, helmets.
  • Cloud Shapes Story The cool-down game. Everyone lies on the grass looking up. The first child names a shape they can see in the clouds, and the next has to add it to the story: a dragon, who met a shoe, that sailed to an island. Stop when the cake comes out. Players: 2 to 12. Time: 5 min. Props: none.
  • Decorated Bike and Wagon Parade Put out streamers, ribbon, paper flags and tape, and give everyone twenty minutes to dress up a bike, a scooter, a wagon or a stroller. Then parade one slow lap of the closed street while the neighbors clap. Give every rider a title, from most streamers to loudest bell. Players: 4 to 50. Time: 30 min. Props: streamers, ribbon, paper flags and tape.
  • Hidden Gnome on the Block A grown-up hides a garden gnome somewhere it can be seen from the sidewalk while the kids count at the corner. Hunters walk the block looking, without stepping on any lawn. When you spot it, say nothing: walk back to the corner and whisper the spot. The first one back hides it next. Players: 4 to 25. Time: 15 min. Props: a garden gnome.
  • Hopscotch With a Beanbag Lagger Chalk ten numbered squares, singles and side-by-side pairs. Toss a beanbag into square one, then hop the course: one foot in singles, two feet astride the pairs, skipping the square with the beanbag. Pick it up on the way back. A foot on a line ends your turn, and next time you throw for square two. Players: 2 to 6 per court. Time: 10 min. Props: sidewalk chalk and a beanbag or a flat stone.
  • Pirate Map With Paces Draw a map of the garden with a starting point and a list of moves: ten paces toward the shed, turn to face the big tree, six paces, look under something blue. Each team gets its own map to its own small treasure. Let an older child write a map for the next group. Players: 2 to 12. Time: 15 min. Props: hand-drawn maps and a small hidden treasure per team.
  • Rainbow Color Hunt Chalk six colored squares on the path: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. Teams search the garden for one small thing to lay in each square. Fallen things only, so nothing gets picked or pulled up. Blue is always the hard one. Players: 2 to 16. Time: 10 min. Props: sidewalk chalk in six colors.
  • Sidewalk Chalk Mural by House Each family decorates the stretch of sidewalk or street in front of its own house, to a theme picked that morning: under the sea, outer space, our street in 100 years. At the end everyone walks the gallery from one end of the block to the other. Players: 6 to 60. Time: 30 min. Props: sidewalk chalk for every house.
  • Snail Hopscotch Chalk a spiral of about twenty squares, like a snail shell. Hop on one foot to the middle and back out without touching a line. If you make it, write your initials in any square: you may rest both feet there, and everyone else has to hop over it. Most squares owned at the end wins. Players: 2 to 6. Time: 12 min. Props: sidewalk chalk.
  • Street-Long Hopscotch to 100 Every child chalks five squares and numbers them on from where the last child stopped, until the course reaches 100. Add instructions in some squares: spin, clap, hop backward, roar. Then the whole street takes turns hopping from 1 to 100. Players: 6 to 40. Time: 20 min. Props: a big box of sidewalk chalk.

How this list was compiled: Written for a children's party in a yard, a park or a closed street, in our own words; player counts, minutes and starting ages are our estimates. No game uses food or needs a pool, and an adult stays at any bucket of water and empties it afterwards. Games with no Wikipedia article (Bandage Tag, Crows and Cranes and the relays) are described one common way. The American Academy of Pediatrics advice to empty buckets after use was read on 2026-09-20: https://www.healthychildren.org/English/safety-prevention/at-play/Pages/Water-Safety-And-Young-Children.aspx. Traditional rules were checked on 2026-09-18 against English Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ followed by the name): Tag_(game), British_bulldog_(game), Statues_(game), Spud_(game), Hide-and-seek, Blind_man%27s_buff, Hopscotch, Kickball, Croquet, Marbles. That nobody wraps a pulled rope around a hand or wrist was checked on 2026-09-19 against https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tug_of_war. Licence: own work

How it works

Outdoor party games for kids go smoothly when the next game is ready before the last one ends. Here are 70 for a yard, a park or a closed street, and none needs a pool or uses food.

Read the full guide

Plan in waves: run, aim, rest

Children tire in bursts. Follow a chasing game with one where they stand and aim, then one where they sit. Choose Tag and chasing games and take away all but a keeper with ×. Then choose Ball and target games and press again: the game you kept stays and new ones join it. Save Cloud Shapes Story, played lying on the grass, for before the cake.

Block party games for kids on a closed street

The Block party games group holds 17 that want a long flat stretch, such as Slow Bike Race and Kickball on a Chalk Diamond. Run races in heats by age, as Curb-to-Curb Sprint Heats does, so a five-year-old never lines up against a ten-year-old. Wheels mean helmets, and street games need a street closed with barriers, not a quiet one.

  • Walk the boundary with the children before the first game: the gate, the flower beds, the edge of the driveway.
  • Water games without a pool holds 11 that run from a hose, tub or bucket. Guests need a towel.
  • For preschoolers or mixed ages, choose Easy enough for ages 4 to 7, or set Youngest player under More filters.

Questions and answers

How long does each game last outside?

Forty of the 70 take under ten minutes, and none is planned past 30. A two-hour party needs five or six games with two in reserve, once food, cake and free play are counted.

Which outdoor games need no equipment at all?

Choose No props for 13, among them Shadow Tag on a Sunny Lawn, Bandage Tag and Leapfrog Line Race. A box of sidewalk chalk adds six more, including Snail Hopscotch. A bucket and two big sponges add Drip, Drip, Drop and Sponge Splash Tag.

Are these games safe for a mix of ages?

They were picked to be gentle. Tagging is a light tap on the shoulder or back, and the throwing games use soft balls, sponges and beanbags. Water and bikes still need a grown-up in charge. Match partners by size in the Wheelbarrow Race on Grass.

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