150 Pool Games for Kids
1. Star, cannon, pencil. One person runs to jump into the pool, and the rest decide on a position to yell for them to get into midair. If they can complete the form before hitting the water, they get a point. First person to 10 points wins the game. (You can use other shapes for more fun.)
2. Bowling on the water. Set up toys on a boogie board. (Someone may have to hold the board to keep it upright.) Stand at the other end of the pool and skip a ball down the water to try to hit the toys on the board. The ball must hit the water at least once. Knocking toys off the board is a point.
3. Have a cannon ball contest. Get judges out and rate the competitor’s cannon ball splashes from one to ten. The biggest splash is the winner.
4. Play volleyball waist deep in water. Set up a volleyball net across the shallow end of your pool and play with teams of two or three on either side. No volleyball? No problem. Just about anything will do. A beachball is fun too.
5. Play innertube water polo. Set up nets at end of the pool. Divide into teams and pass the ball back and forth, trying to throw it into the other team’s net. The team with the most points after 30 minutes wins.
6. Play groundhog with a pool noodle. Everyone circles around the person holding the noodle and go underwater. If they come up for air and get wacked in the head, they’re out. So, they must come up for air together to be less likely to all get out.
7. Play tag in the pool. Exactly the same as normal tag, except with the added challenge of swimming instead of running. One person is “it” and must tag someone else for them to become “it”. The person who’s “it” when the timer goes off loses. This is a fun game because you also get a lot of exercise. Make it tougher for the “it” player by only letting them use one arm.
8. Play freeze tag in the pool. If you’re tagged, you must freeze with your legs spread. Someone must swim between your legs to unfreeze you. Whoever is frozen when the timer goes off is out.
9. Grab a partner and wrestle in the air. Enjoy a chicken war by getting on someone’s shoulders and wrestling another team to get their top half into the water. The last team standing wins.
10. Conduct a treasure hunt to let the kids look for hidden gems at the bottom of the ocean. Throw weighted objects down to the deep end of the pool and let the kids dive and search for their favorites.
11. Create your own frisbee golf game in the pool. Set up boogie boards all over the water with someone holding it in place. Take turns to see how many tries it’ll take to get through the whole course. Whoever hits the targets with the least amount of tries wins.
12. Pretend someone’s a shark who’s getting ready to attack all the children. The shark stands at one end of the pool. When the shark says swim, all the fish can creep closer. If the shark turns around the fish must freeze. The goal is to touch the shark’s back before he or she says, “dinner time,” in which case the shark can turn around and tag everyone out.
13. Create a whirlpool in your own backyard. If you have a circular pool, get everyone to wade around the exterior so the water will be pushed in a circle. As the current picks up tempo, you won’t have to push the water, it’ll push you. So, just lie on a floaty, relax, and let the lazy river carry you around.
14. Become an octopus and squid in your own miniature ocean. Everyone lines up on the side of the wall. The octopus stands in the middle of the pool. As people try to cross, the octopus will tag whoever they can. They will then stand in place and help the octopus tag people as seaweed. The last survivor wins.
15. Have a diving competition. Make sure you have a pool deep enough to dive in, and rate each other’s dives from 1-10. The highest rating wins the game.
16. Pretend you’re a deep-sea diver. Whoever can hold their breath underwater the longest wins. Make sure you come up if you can’t hold it any longer, as it’s just a game.
17. Act out a magical mermaid tail. Someone is a mermaid and they must swim like one with their legs together. If they tag you, you must swim like one as well and help them tag others. The last human standing wins.
18. Have a cornhole tournament in your pool. Set up donut floaties on either end of the pool. Divide into teams and take turns trying to throw balls into the other team’s donuts. Whoever get to ten points first wins. Make it harder by having multiple donuts, and someone to block the balls.
19. Create an obstacle course in your pool and bring the water park to you. Use sprinklers and floaties to make a path around your backyard and into your pool. Place noodles to weave around in the pool and set up a finish line. Whoever completes the course in the shortest time wins.
20. Find the invisible treasure. Fill a clear water bottle with water and get someone’s parent to throw it in the pool while everyone closes their eyes. It can take longer than you’d expect to find a water bottle when you can only see a small, white cap.
21. See who has the best balance. Everyone puts a toy on top of their head and must tread water. Last one standing is the winner.
22. Dolphin in the middle. Pass a beachball ball back and forth between teams with one person in the middle trying to intercept it without using their hands.
23. Use your best poker face to disguise who’s a thief. One person will hold a small pool toy behind their back, and one of the thieves will take it from them. Once everyone is back to their place, the person will turn around and try to guess who took the toy. If they guess correctly, they trade places with who took it. If not, they start again.
24. Have a splash off. Get judges to determine who will win by volunteering as splash victims. See how hard you can push water into different judges, and they’ll pick a winner by rating the splashes by 1-10.
25. Find out who has the most powerful lungs and strongest body. See how many lengths of the pool each player can complete underwater. This will test their ability to hold in their breath as well as swimming speed.
26. Pretend you’re a sea creature and have a bubble blowing contest. Whoever can blow the biggest bubbles underwater wins. Prepare your lungs.
27. Create an underwater scavenger hunt. Throw in a bunch of different weighted items. Teams have five minutes to collect one of each item. The first team to retrieve everything on the list wins.
28. Make your own slip and slide. Lay a tarp down a hill and cover it with soap. Run your hose down it and slide away. If you want it to land in your pool, don’t use the soap. You can use a boogie board on it to protect your body if you don’t want any scratches.
29. Time to splish, splish, splash. Everyone stands in a circle in the shallow end. One person walks around gently splashing people, until they do a great, big splash on one person and must swim race around the circle for their spot. The slower swimmer who doesn’t make it to the spot becomes the new splasher.
30. Have a hula hooping contest in your pool. Stand in the shallow end and see how long everyone can hula hoop for without letting the hoop touch the water.
31. Conduct a belly flopping competition. See who can create the biggest splash with their belly as they go flat on the water. Judges rate the flops from 1-10. Highest rating wins.
32. Aquatic dodgeball. Divide teams into opposite ends of the pool. Throw balls at each other to get someone out. You won’t be able to dodge as quickly, but you’ll have the advantage of being able to go underwater.
33. Have a handstand competition. See who can hold their feet straight in the air for the longest while holding their breath underwater.
34. Create a swimming version of capture the flag. Hide a weighted toy somewhere on your side of the pool. Each team must try to retrieve the toy without getting tagged by the opposite team. The first team to get it wins.
35. Create a meditation game. Everyone drops to the bottom of the pool holding their breath. They must sit in a silent circle cross-legged for as long as they can. The last one underwater is the greatest meditator and wins the game.
36. Pretend you’re snorkelers in the great barrier reef. Set up toys on the bottom to observe as you snorkel over them. Get your parents or friends to pretend to be fish swimming around for you to observe. Take turns being the snorkeler and the fish. There’s no winner in this game, it’s just for the experience. (Not all games need to have a winner. Really it’s all about having fun!)
37. Play a nighttime pool game. Throw glowsticks into the water at night and race to see who can collect the most until they’re all gone. Whoever can find the most sticks is the winner.
38. Create a whirlpool, then try to go against it. Get everyone to run around the edge of a circular pool, then once a whirlpool has started, try to go the other direction. Whoever’s strong enough to do a lap in the opposite direction fastest wins.
39. Have a statue contest in the water. Everyone freezes in any position they want. One person must swim around trying to make them laugh and break their statuesque form. The last person to stay still wins. Another way to play this game is to give people a theme, like zoo animals. Then everyone tries to guess what the statues are.
40. Join in a Simon Says, pool version. Simon will direct players by saying, “Simon says do the backstroke.” If Simon doesn’t say “Simon says” before the direction, and the players still do it, they’re out. See who knows how to listen.
41. Have a mock Olympic race. Start at one end of the pool and conduct a freestyle stroke race. Go back and forth a couple of lengths and find out who’s the fastest.
42. Create a somersault competition. See who can do the most somersaults in a row in the pool. Two is impressive, three is spectacular.
43. Have a baseball game in your pool. Use a volleyball or soft toy as a baseball and pitch it to the batter. The batter will use a noodle or their hand to slap it away and swim to every corner of the pool for the bases. If they get around the whole pool, they get a homerun. This is a great game to play if you’ve also got hotdogs and a BBQ.
44. Teach your dog to fetch into the water. You’ll get to see how far they can jump. Throw a toy high as they run to the pool and they’ll catch it midair before falling in the water. If you have two dogs, make them compete on who can jump farther.
45. Use waves to make a race. Put two different colored ping pong balls in the water. Without touching them, you must use waves and splashing to get yours across the pool. You can also push waves against your opponent’s ball to send theirs back. The first person to get their ball to the other side of the pool wins.
46. Marco Polo. This classic pool game involves one person (Polo) closing their eyes and using their ears to find their culprits. When they say “Marco” everyone must respond with “Polo.” Polo must tag everyone in the pool to win the game.
47. Create a plastic cup race with water guns. Place your cups sideways and shoot water in them with a water gun to push them. The first person to get their cup across the pool wins.
48. Write numbers from one to twenty on ping pong balls. One team must collect even numbers while the other must collect odd. Once you get all your numbers in a bucket, you win.
49. Have a long jump competition in your pool. Become your dog and catch a ball as you run to jump in the pool. See how far you can jump to catch the ball. Get a judge to mark with chalk beside the pool where you landed.
50. Create a cheerleading team in your pool. Try throwing flyers up in the air with the safety of the pool below. See if the flyers can do stars at first, then move on to somersaults in the air.
51. Dye your pool a different color and pretend you’re magical mermaids living among the humans. Find pink or purple dye to turn your pool into an oasis, then everyone must pretend to be mermaids. (Use smart lights if you don’t want to dye the pool.)
Once you’ve got mermaids, it’s time for pirates. The pirates should try to capture the mermaids. If they escape, they win the game!
52. Create your own rafts, and race. Use cardboard and duct tape, or any other materials at your disposal, and try to make a boat in one hour. See which team can get across the pool faster, as they struggle to stay afloat. Make it tougher by limiting the building materials, or set a timer to see who’s raft stays afloat the longest.
53. Go fishing in your own backyard. Players pretend to be fish swimming around the pool. The fishermen stand around the outside of the pool holding noodles. If their noodle touches a fish, they catch it. Whoever catches the most fish wins.
54. Fill a ball with water so you can play basketball, underwater. You can dribble and try to get past the opposing team. Set up nets on either side of the shallow end and do your best to get “splash” shots in the basket. Split into teams and play a game of underwater basketball.
55. Create your own circus in the water. Grab a couple of balls and practice juggling. Once you get the hang of it, get on someone’s shoulders to do it, and you’re basically a circus act. Put a show for the parents, and score points if you can get them to laugh out loud.
56. Have a game of water tennis. Use your tennis rackets to bounce a ball back and forth over a net across the middle. Since you can’t bounce the ball on the water, you just have to hit it back and forth over the net. It’ll still be a nice arm workout. Make sure to use an inexpensive tennis racket. Good ones can be damaged easily.
57. Create a version of ring toss out of pool noodles. Tape two into circles with duct tape and place them on either side of the pool. Use any objects you can easily throw and try to get them through the noodle for one point. The first person or team to ten points wins.
58. Conduct a game of badminton in the water. Set up a net across the pool and use badminton rackets and birdies. The great part about not letting the birdie hit the water on your side is it’ll be easier to lunge without the fear of injury from falling.
59. Have a relay with open water bottles. Set up two lines in front of two buckets. A member from each side will run to the pool, fill the bottle, and toss the open water bottle back to the next teammate for them to pour in the bucket. Then, they will run to the pool and repeat. The first team with a full bucket wins.
60. Set up a game of water Quidditch. Place a hula hoop on either side of the pool. Ride on noodles and pass the ball back and forth to try to throw the ball through the hoop for one point. The first team to ten points wins.
61. The cleaning game. Whoever skims the pool gets a gold star on the fridge. The first person to get to ten gold stars gets taken out to ice cream.
62. Try to thaw a T-shirt. Soak a T-shirt then freeze it over night. Tell each team to try their hardest to thaw the shirt and have someone put it on before the other team. They can use any resources at their disposal.
63. Play HORSE, but with pool tricks. Try to do trick shots of balls into a basketball net, as well as handstands and somersaults. If you can’t do the trick, you get a letter. The first person to spell out “horse” is out. Have someone standing by to take a video of a really crazy trick shot. That stuff is gold on social media.
64. Start your own Angry Birds setup in the pool. Build a tower of toys on either end of the pool on boogie boards. Take turns launching toys into the tower to try to get them in the water. The first team to soak all of their opponent’s toys, wins.
65. Have a race, but on your hands. Go into a handstand and walk across the pool against a friend with your legs in the air. See how fast your hands and balance can get you underwater.
66. Find cloud shapes on your back. Lie like a starfish in the water and try to find shapes in the sky. The first person to identify five animals wins (This is more of a cooperative game.)
67. See who can do the most barrel rolls in a row. Get your kayak out and go in the pool. Take turns to see who can do the most constant barrel rolls in a row. Whoever can do the most wins.
68. Practice counting with this game for toddlers. Cut out the numbers one to ten in foam and get them to swim around in a lifejacket picking up the numbers in order. If they complete the task, they get a popsicle.
69. Catch the marine animals. Throw all your floaties in the pool. Everyone holds a hula hoop and must try to pull the animals out of the water with the ring. Whoever gets the most animals in one minute is the ultimate animal wrangler. Want to make it harder? Have an older kid or an adult take the place of the floaties. They pretend to be a lion and they don’t want to get caught.
70. Have a chicken war on a floatie. Use a floatie you can sit on, or just a noodle, and try to push and wrestle your opponent off their floatie. The first one to fall in the water loses.
71. Jousting! Two players ride animal floaties towards each other holding pool noodles. Try to get your opponent off their floatie before they knock you off yours. Whoever stays dry wins.
72. Play watermelon push. Cover a watermelon in oil and try to push it from one end of the pool to another. Since it’s so slippery, it can be a challenge. Whoever can get it across the fastest wins.
73. Have a waterslide contest. Get judges to vote one to ten on different waterslide poses you do as you go down the slide. Try standing up (safely), lying on your front, back, or side, or whatever else you can think of.
74. Turn frisbees upside down to create floating targets. Each team gets a wet sponge, and if you land the sponge on a floating frisbee you get a point. The first team to ten wins.
75. Throw 20 ping pong balls of two different colors into the pool. Get teams to race to pick up their color first. The first team to collect all their balls is the winner.
76. Race only using your arms to paddle. Put your feet on a noodle or boogie board so you can’t use them. See how fast you can go as you flounder to keep your head above water. Whoever gets to the other side of the pool first wins.
77. Set up a slack line over the pool. If you have two trees on either side, you can attach the line to those. See if you can walk the tightrope across the pool without getting wet. If you fall in, you lose. If no one can get across the whole pool, whoever can get the farthest without falling wins.
78. Create a cooperative swimming race. One person uses their arms while the other uses their legs. The front person does the front crawl, and the second person lies on their back with their arms up to hold the front person’s feet and kick theirs. Now, teams will race as exceptionally long humans. First team to the other side wins.
79. Push a noodle across the pool with anything except your arms. You can use your feet, head, or anything that’s not your hands and arms. The first one to get their noodle to the other side wins.
80. Create a Congo line in the water. The first person starts swimming around, then the next person grabs one of their body parts, and so on. Swimmers must keep going wherever the first swimmer leads. Whoever breaks the line loses and must leave the pool party.
81. Play the cha-cha slide song in the pool. Follow along the dance moves, and whoever messes up and slides the wrong way by accident first, loses. Whoever can get through the whole song are declared winners. Turn it into a dance contest by using other songs. Make sure to use a song with a great beat.
82. Put on an American Idol show, but underwater. Everyone goes underwater and you must do your best underwater singing. The judges will rate your talents from one to ten. Whoever has the highest rating is deemed the winner.
83. Play water gun tag in the pool. You’re already wet, so it won’t be as much of a shock to your system when you get hit. Whoever is “it” must try to spray someone else with their water gun. If they do, the person hit becomes “it”. Put in a timer so that when it goes off, whoever is “it” at the time is out.
84. Have a clothing relay. It’s surprisingly difficult to swim fully clothed, so this may be a challenge. Divide into teams of two and stand in lines at one side of the pool. Each member must put on the clothes, do a length of the pool, and take off the clothes for the next person to put them on. The first team to all their players through their lengths wins.
85. Buy swimmable hula hoops. They have a weight on the bottom and a floatie on the top so they vertical as you swim through. Create an obstacle course with them and time each other. The fastest to complete the course wins.
86. Play a card game while keeping cool. Most types of cards have a waterproof version. Set up a boogie board as a floating table and play your favorite card game. Add some things like whoever loses has to swim some laps and you’ll get some physical exercise along with the mental workout.
87. Have a water balloon fight with your friends, but in the pool. Basically, play dodgeball, but the dodgeballs explode on you and you must take thirty seconds to fill new dodgeballs with water. Whichever team has people left standing, or swimming, at the end wins.
88. Have an egg on a spoon race, in the water. Hold a plastic spoon in your mouth, so you don’t damage your teeth. Place an egg on the spoon then try to race someone across the pool. Whoever gets to the end first without dropping their egg in the water wins.
89. Play bump in your pool. Set up a basketball net or a ring at the side of the pool. Stand a couple feet back in a line and try to throw one of the balls into the net. The person behind them must get their ball in the net before the first person does to get them out. Both people can bump each other’s balls away and send them running, hence the name of the game.
90. Have a no-splash contest. Set up judges who will rank the smallness of the splash from 1-10. Players can perform any jump they like, as it’s whichever jump they think will create the least resistance into the water.
91. Enjoy the rubber chicken game in your pool. Divide the players into two teams. A third party will throw the rubber chicken in the pool while everyone has their backs turned. The first person from each team will turn around and rush to swim and retrieve the chicken. Once they get it back, they throw it back out for the second set of people to battle for the chicken. Team with the most points wins.
92. Practice your aim in the pool by curling. Set up a boogie board or large toy in the pool and try to land smaller toys as close as you can to it. Once each team has thrown their toys in, the team with the closest toy wins. Make it tougher by using smaller objects. Or use water balloons which can explode if thrown too hard.
93. Have a relay with your pool water. Get two buckets and two sponges. Teams with run to the pool, soak up the sponge with water, and bring it back to squeeze it into their bucket. Then, the next person in line does the same thing. Whichever team’s bucket fills up first is the winning team.
94. Have a game of musical swimmers. Everyone walks around the exterior of the pool as music plays. Once the music stops, everyone must jump in. The last person to jump in is out. Keep going until one person remains.
95. Have a watery repetition session. One person does a handstand in the water. The next does a handstand then a somersault. Keep adding on motions until someone messes up the choreography, in which case they’re out. Keep going until only one person can remember all the moves. It’s like a dancing competition but in the pool. A little competition never hurt nobody…
96. Create a floating water pong set up. Fill plastic cups with water and set them up on boogie boards. Stand in the shallow end and try to get ping pong balls in the cups to get them out. The last team with cups left wins. Make it harder by using larger balls. Landing a tennis ball in a plastic cup is fun and challenging.
97. Play Marco Polo splash tag. Whoever is “it” must close their eyes and can say “Marco” for players to respond with “Polo.” However, they don’t need to touch them to tag them. They just need to hear where they are and splash them. If you’re splashed, you become “it.”
98. Try not to lose your water balloon. Toss a water balloon back and forth in the pool, slowly moving farther away from your partner. If your water balloon breaks or falls to the bottom of the pool, your team is out. The last team standing wins.
99. Play limbo with the water. Shoot a hose stream horizontally, and players must limbo underneath. As the stream gets lower, it’ll be harder to stay in. If you get wet, you must jump in the pool to fully understand your punishment. The player who can get the lowest without getting wet wins.
100. Create a sponge toss relay game to maximize water in the bucket. Teams will divide into two lines. One person from each team will run to the pool and fill their sponge with water. Then, they will gently toss it back to the next person in line, who will carefully catch it and squeeze it into the bucket. Then they will run it to the pool and repeat until the bucket is filled with water.
101. Have a three-legged swim race. Teams will tie an ankle together so they must work in unison to swim to the other side of the pool quickly. The first team to get to the other side of the pool wins.
102. Get people to dunk their heads for all the bad things they’ve done. Play a game of “Never Have I Ever” in the pool. Everyone stands in the shallow end and take turns saying things they’ve never done. If you’ve done one of these things, you must move your body a couple inches lower.
103. Race for your life by playing shark attack. Everyone treads in the middle of the pool with their eyes closed. The shark can circle the exterior of the pool, and as soon as they say, “shark attack,” everyone opens their eyes and tries to swim to safety while the shark jumps in to tag someone. Whoever gets tagged becomes a shark.
104. Everyone writes something embarrassing they’ve done on a piece of paper and puts them in a jar. Once everyone gets in the pool, a third party reads them out loud. If you think someone has done something, you splash them. If you stay dry in when your paper is read, you can get out of the pool as you’re safe. If you get splashed and you did the thing, you have to go underwater then get out.
105. Tickly shark. Everyone treads water in the middle of the pool. One person dives underneath them and tickles someone’s feet. The rest of the players must guess whose feet were tickled.
106. Find the ice cube in the pool. Divide into two teams and one player closes their eyes and throws an ice cube in the pool. Teams will then jump in right away and scour the bottom of the pool for an ice cube. If your team finds it before it melts, you get a point. First team to ten points wins.
107. See how far you can long jump into a pool. Get someone to hold a pool noodle near the edge of the pool. Everyone must try to jump past it. Each round, the noodle gets moved farther away from the edge so the players must jump farther. Whoever can jump the farthest wins.
108. Time to finish a puzzle. Get an easy, low-piece puzzle to make. Divide into two teams and race to finish your puzzle. After the puzzle, everyone on the team must swim a length of the pool to win the race. Want to make even more fun? Laminate the puzzle and make it waterproof. Then you can complete it in the pool!
109. See how many words you can rhyme. One person will start off with a word, and the next person must say a word that rhymes with it. If you mess up, you must jump in the pool. The last person dry wins.
110. Play reverse Jenga. Throw two sets of different colored Jenga’s in the pool. Each team must race to find all their blocks in the pool to build back up their tower. Whoever has a complete tower first wins.
111. Create a splashing duel. Players must go back to back and swim ten feet away. Once someone yells “duel” they must turn around and splash each other or shoot each other with a water gun. Whoever gets wet first loses.
112. Throw a set of marbles in the pool. Everyone must search for as many marbles as they can. Whoever finds the most marbles, wins.
113. Play charades with aquatic animals. Pretend to be different types of marine life in the water to make your team guess who you are (without using sounds). If your team guesses correctly before the minute timer, you get a point. The first team to get to ten points wins.
114. Have a swimming tug-of-war challenge. Place a rope in the pool and divide into teams on either side. Each team must swim to try to pull the rope and the people attached to it to their respective sides. Place a pool noodle in the middle for the centre line. Go for two out of three to see who the strongest swimmers are.
115. Divide players into four marine animal categories, such as dolphins, sharks, jellyfish, and crabs. They will stand around the perimeter of the pool. The fisherman will tread water in the middle of the pool. When the fisherman shouts a category, all the players from that category from jump into the pool and get into one of the other’s spots. The fisherman will also rush to get into one of the spots, and if they do, whoever is left out is the new fisherman. If the fisherman shouts, “tidal wave” everyone must jump in and find a new spot.
116. Hot Potato game with a water balloon. Everyone stands in a circle passing around a full water balloon. If you make it explode, you’re out.
117. Combine Marco Polo and dodgeball. Use a beach ball to get your friends out if you’re Polo. Polo must keep their eyes closed and try to hit everyone else with a ball by listening to where they are. If they say, “Marco” everyone else must respond with, “Polo” no matter what.
118. Have a game of telephone underwater. When the first two people go underwater, one person shouts anything they want. The person who was listening then brings another person underwater, and so on. Once it gets around the whole circle, the last person will tell the group what they heard.
119. Use a water balloon to play a game of jackpot. One person will yell out a number when they throw a water balloon in the air behind their head.
120. Save the ball. One person throws a ball high in the air over the pool. The next person must jump in the pool and save the ball from touching the water mid-jump. If you let the ball touch the water, you’re out.
121. Try not to say the letter E. Friends will ask you a question, and you must respond with at least five words (none with the letter E). If you use a word with that letter, you must jump in the pool or get splashed.
122. Pin the tail on the fish. Throw a weighted toy to the bottom of the pool. This is the fish. Then, everyone jumps in and swims down with their eyes closed and must place their toy as close to the fish as they can. Whoever’s toy is closest to the fish wins.
123. Create a game of I Spy in your pool area. One person finds an object and says, “I spy with my little eye something that is red (or whatever color the object is). The other players then have ten guesses to find out what the object is. If they don’t get it, they have to jump in the pool. If they do, the spy master must jump in.
124. Create a tiger circus in your pool. Hold a hula hoop beside the pool. Players must take turns jumping through the hoop into the pool. The hoop will slowly move farther away from the edge to make it harder and harder. Whoever can jump through it the farthest is the best tiger.
125. See who can create the best boat that can stay afloat. Use popsicles and hot glue to create a miniature boat. Put all your creations in the water and then splash around. See whose can resist capsizing. The last boat afloat wins.
For a different challenge, pile tiny rocks into the boats and see which one stays afloat the longest.
126. Donut in the middle. Put a floatie ring in the middle of the pool. One person swims next to the ring and tries to prevent people standing around the pool from throwing balls into the ring. The person in the pool isn’t allowed to touch the floatie ring.
127. Create a funny questionnaire for people to answer mid-jump in the water. As they’re running, ask them a funny question. They must answer before they get in the water to get a point. The first person to ten points wins. The questions can get steadily harder so that coming up with an answer quickly is difficult.
128. Create a pool noodle weave contest. Set up a line of noodles from one end of your pool to the other. Weave under and over them. Set up a timer with a stopwatch. Fastest wins. (If you have a lot of people, get them to hold the pool noodles still so they don’t go bananas when you’re trying to swim around them.
129. Fish for treasure. Throw metal objects in the pool. Attach a magnet to your fishing rod and remove the hook. Cast it into your pool and see what treasure you can find at the bottom. Rank the different metal objects by points to make different pieces more valuable. Whoever has the most points at the end wins.
130. Have a horse race with pool noodles. Sit on the noodle as if it’s a horse and use your legs to paddle yourself forwards. Whoever can complete a length of the pool the fastest wins. Bonus points if you can find a cowboy hat to wear.
131. Cannonball charades. Hand out charade cards to everyone (easy ones.) People have to jump into the pool while acting out their charades. (So don’t have very long.) If your team can guess what it was you get a point. You might have to make custom charade cards for this. Stick to easy nouns like “elephant,” or easy verbs like “eating.”
132. Create an echolocation game. The “it” dolphin must close its eyes and make a dolphin sound. Other players must respond with the same dolphin sound. The “it” dolphin must try to find the other players through sound and tag them. The last dolphin to survive without being tagged wins.
133. Find out who the stronger swimmer is. Tie one person’s ankle to the other person’s as they lie down on their stomachs facing separate ways. When they go in the water, they will stay connected. They must try to pull the other person to their side of the pool. Whoever gets to their side first wins.
134. Create a water aerobics class. Get all the players to follow along with your motions. If anyone can’t keep up with the arm circles and high knees, they’re out. Keep going to see who has the most endurance.
135. Create an underwater Rubik’s cube race. Players get a Rubik’s cube at the bottom of the deep end. Everyone must go down and try to solve their cube, which they can only make moves on underwater. The first one to complete the cube wins.
136. Pretend to be Sims characters in the water. Everyone must walk robotically and talk like Sims. If they break character, they’re out.
137. Create a golf course in your pool. Set up a boogie board in the middle of the pool and try to putt golf balls onto it with a putter. At the end, everyone must race to collect the golf balls from the bottom of the pool. Whoever has the most gets bonus points.
138. Create a game of chess or checkers with humans. Set up all your friends in the pool and use their bodies as pieces. Tell players where to go to win your game. Players destroy each other by splashing them when they take their position. Don’t have enough people? Play Tic-Tac-Toe. There are lots of simple board games you can play with people.
139. Play cotton candy capture the flag. Hide two pieces of cotton candy on one your respective sides of the area behind the pool. Divide into two teams and try to find the opposite team’s flag without getting tagged on their side. Once you get the cotton candy, you must get it to dissolve in the pool before you can win. The losing team must jump in the pool together.
140. Have your own paddling race. Use boogie boards taped together, or cardboard, to make a canoe. Use a paddle or noodle to paddle yourself or your team across the pool. The first team to get to the end of the pool without going in the water wins. The losing team must do a belly flop.
141. Create a game of lacrosse in the pool. Set up nets on either side of the pool. Use lacrosse sticks and get in two teams. Pass a ball back and forth while treading water to try to get it in the opposite net. The first team to ten points wins.
142. Have a spike ball tournament in the water. Set up the net on a boogie board or anything flat that floats. Stand around and use the small ball like a volleyball to hit it against the net and pass it back and forth with your partner. The rules are the same as regular spike ball, it’s just more difficult to run for the ball if you’re wading in the water. The first team to 21 points wins.
143. Create a wet truth or dare game. Find a bunch of funny facts, then make up some of your own. Say them out loud, then everyone has to guess whether they’re true or false. If they guess correctly, they’re dry. If they’re wrong, they must jump in the water and get soaked.
144. Create a memory game in the pool. Place different colored weights in the pool at different corners. Everyone must jump in and they have five seconds to see which color is where. They write down their answers, and whoever’s wrong has to do a belly flop. Make it harder by adding more objects, or objects with similar colors.
145. Find some sticks and give one to each player. Everyone places their sticks at one end of the pool. They must use waves to push their sticks to the other end of the pool. They can swim behind their stick and make waves, but if they touch any of the sticks they’re out. The first person to get their stick to the end wins.
146. Create a game of darts in the pool. Set up a magnetic dart board on a boogie board in the middle of the pool. Try to land the darts on the board, as close to the middle as possible. If they go in the water, you not only lose points, but you must jump in and collect them afterwards.
147. Have a race with a hula hoop on. Put a hula hoop around your waist, then try to swim to the other end of the pool against other players without using your hands to keep it on. If it slips down your legs, you lose. It must stay around your waist. Whoever gets to the other side first wins.
148. Create music trivia in your pool. Play a small snippet of a song. Everyone writes down their guesses. Whoever’s right gets to stay to the next round. Whoever’s wrong has to jump in the pool. The last person dry is the music master. When you’re done playing, the music masters get to choose what type of music you’ll listen to for the next 30 minutes.
149. Deep sea diving competition. Two players fall backwards into the pool. Two sharks jump in ten seconds later from the other side of the pool. The scuba divers must retrieve the treasure from the bottom of the pool before getting eaten (tagged) by the sharks. If the divers get out of the water with the treasure, they win. If the sharks tag them, they conquer.
150. Have a water football tournament. Use floaties for little kids. Divide into two teams and try to score touchdowns by getting the football to either side (or endzone). You can play touch football or tackle if you’re feeling dangerous. If you get the football to the endzone, you get seven points. Whoever has the most points after an hour wins.
