Water Relay Games - Youth Workin' It

10 Water Games For Youth – Youth Group Games

June 24, 2013 By Stephen Pepper 1 Comment

Last week, we gave you a list of 10 activities that you can do for free with your youth group this summer. The first suggestion on that list was to organize a giant water fight.

If you’d prefer to organize some wet games and activities that are a bit more structured than just a free-for-all, here are 10 fun youth group water games.

There are brief descriptions of each of the game ideas below, along with links to posts that give step-by-step instructions and rules for each one.

Enjoy!

10 Water Games For Youth

Waterface – This relay game is a surefire way of making sure that all your young people get soaked – particularly their faces.
Spongehead – The first game involves the students’ heads getting wet while laying down – Spongehead has their heads (and the rest of their body) getting wet while upright and running around.
Water Balloon Relay – Water relay games are one of the best ways of ensuring all your young people have a chance to get wet – this balloon relay is no exception. Make sure you video this game being played as it’ll be hilarious, with youth waddling, shuffling and crawling their way through the relay.
Water Balloon Toss – This idea is similar to The Egg Toss – the youth group game classic that involves young people tossing eggs to each other and trying to catch them without breaking. Same thing here, but using water balloons instead of eggs.
Bowl Hole – This is a fast and frantic water relay, with an option to make it a little like Spongehead to ensure that the youth get really soaked.
Water Balloon Dodgeball – This idea doesn’t have many rules – it’s basically dodgeball with water balloons.
Human Battleship – This one doesn’t necessarily involve water, but it’s fun to throw water over the young people when the battleships (i.e. them!) get hit.
Water Balloon Baseball – You might think it would be impossible to hit a home run when playing baseball with water balloons. You’d be wrong! Check out the post for how this works.
Water Balloon Challenge – The challenge involves teams throwing the balloons and one of their teammates trying to catch them in a bowl on their head. The only question is how many ‘accidental’ wayward throws will there be?!
Water Balloon Hot Potato – This one’s fairly self-explanatory as well – it’s like a wet version of hot potato. I’d encourage playing the Ultimate version of it where you use more than one balloon and allow random passing.

Question: So those are our 10 suggestions of water games for youth. Do you have any other ideas for similar youth group games? We’d love to hear them in the comments below.

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Water Balloon Challenge – Youth Group Games

June 3, 2013 By Stephen Pepper Leave a Comment

This week we have another water game for youth groups – one that’s designed to make a big splash! Here’s how to play this water balloon challenge:

Resources

Water balloons
Buckets – one per team
Colanders – one per team
Cones or ropes
Towels

Location

This is definitely one of those youth group games that you’ll want to play outside due to how wet it’s going to get.

Preparation

Fill up all of the water balloons and put them in buckets of water to prevent them from bursting early. Provide at least 20 balloons per team (more for larger teams).

Make a line using cones or a piece of rope and put the buckets of water balloons along the line, evenly spaced out. Make a parallel line about 20 feet away with some more cones or rope and put the colanders along the line. The colanders should be directly opposite the buckets of balloons at the other end of the playing area.

Teams

Split the teenagers into teams, ideally ones that are the same size.

Water Balloon Challenge Rules

Have each team designate one of their members as catcher – this is the person who’ll be getting soaked, so you might want to give them the heads up about that before they decide!

Each catcher should go and stand next to one of the colanders. Have the rest of the players stand behind the other line, with each team next to one of the water balloon buckets and facing the catchers.

The catchers should then hold the colander on top of their head, while their teammates take it in turns to throw the water balloons in the air towards them. Their challenge is to try to catch the balloon in the colander without stepping over their line.

It doesn’t matter that the balloons will burst in the colander, just so long as they landed in there.

Winners

The team that manages to catch the most balloons – it’s therefore worth allocating one volunteer per team to count how many get caught.

Alternative

If you want to make sure that everyone has an opportunity to get wet, play this as a water relay instead.

You can do this by having one person from each team start as catcher and getting one of their teammates to throw a balloon at them. The catcher then runs to the back of his team’s line, while the thrower becomes the catcher.

Keep rotating like this so that everyone has a few opportunities to be both the thrower and catcher.

Question: Have you ever played this Water Balloon Challenge or something like it? Do you have any ideas for how to make it even more fun? We’d love to hear your ideas in the comments below.

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How To Play Bowl Hole – Water Relay Games

February 11, 2013 By Stephen Pepper Leave a Comment

This week’s game is a great outdoor water relay called Bowl Hole. These types of youth group games are always loads of fun to play as they love the competition, as well as the opportunity to get wet.

Here’s how to play Bowl Hole:

Resources

Foam / polystyrene bowls – one per team, with a few spares
Buckets – 2 per team
Water
Measuring jug
Towels
Pen

Preparation

Take half of the buckets and fill them to the top with water. Place them in a row with approx. 2 yards between them
Take the other buckets and place them in a parallel line about 10 yards from the water-filled buckets
Using the pen, make a hole in the bottom of each of the foam bowls

Teams

Split the youth group into teams of a similar size – it doesn’t matter if they’re not an exactly even size. Have each team line up behind one of the buckets of water.

Rules

The first person on each team should be given a foam bowl with a hole in the bottom. When you say “Go”, they have to fill up the bowl with water and carry it to the other bucket, tipping the water in that.

They then have to run back and – because it’s a water relay game – pass the bowl to the next person in line who’ll do the same thing.

Needless to say, they’re not allowed to cover the hole so this will probably require some monitoring from your volunteers to make sure there’s no cheating going on! They can hold the bowl with both hands though to ensure there’s minimal spillage over the sides.

If you want this water game to be as wet as possible, have an additional rule that they have to carry the bowl above their head!

Play this for a specific amount of time – about 5 minutes should be good, but it could be longer if they’re enjoying it and they have enough water in their buckets. Make sure that everyone gets a chance to participate though if you have a really large youth group.

Winners

The winning team will be the ones who manage to transfer the most water to the other bucket. This might be obvious just by looking at how much water is in each bucket but if not, use the measuring jug.

Tip

Have some spare bowls available in case any get broken during this game.

If you liked this idea, check out all our other games, including a number of other water relays.

Question: Have you ever played Bowl Hole or a similar water relay game? Did you organize it in a different way? Let us know in the comments below.

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Water Balloon Relay – Youth Group Games

January 21, 2013 By Stephen Pepper Leave a Comment

This week’s addition to our collection of youth group games is a water balloon relay – fun to play, simple to organize and potentially very, very wet!

Here’s how to play the Water Balloon Relay:

Resources

Water balloons
Buckets
Markers of some kind (e.g. cones, chairs, duct tape, etc)
Towels

Preparation

Fill up all the water balloons and place them in the buckets (one bucket per team)
Put the buckets in a line at one end of the playing area – this will be the starting line
Place the markers in a parallel line about 10-20 yards away from the buckets (depending on how hard you want to make it!)
Split the youth group into same-sized teams

Rules

Have each team line up behind a bucket of water balloons. The first person from each team should put one of the balloons between their legs.

The challenge is for them to move to the other marker, go round it and then return back to the starting line. They can try to do this by jumping, shuffling, waddling, crawling or any other possible movement.

The only restrictions are that the water balloon must remain between their legs and they’re not allowed to use their hands to touch the balloon (other than when placing the balloon between their legs at the beginning).

As this is a relay, when they get back to the start line, the next person on their team does the same thing.

Options

Due to the nature of this youth group game, there’s a good chance that players will get very wet due to the balloons bursting while they’re in the race. If that happens, there are a few options you can choose to enforce:

1. One strike and you’re out!

If a player bursts their balloon, they’re out – the next player on their team then has their turn.

2. Three strikes and you’re out!

Similar to the first option, a player gets three opportunities to complete their leg of the relay race. If choosing this option, a player has to continue from where they burst their water balloon.

If choosing this option, try to have volunteers on hand to give them replacement balloons – that will help ensure they continue from the same spot. It also means that you’ll need to prepare three water balloons per player in advance, just in case.

3. Unlimited Do Overs

With this final option, players get as many opportunities as they need to complete their leg of the relay. They have to continue from where they burst their water balloon.

Again, try to have volunteers on hand to replace the burst water balloons. One thing to bear in mind is that you’ll need to prepare a much larger number of water balloons. If a player uses too many on their turn, it could result in some players not getting a chance, so this isn’t recommended unless you have a small youth group and lots of balloons!

Winner

This will depend on which of the three options above you choose. With both the one and three strikes options, the winning team will either be

The one that has the most players complete their leg of the race without using up their allocation of balloons, or
The fastest team to finish if all their players make it round with a balloon intact

If playing the unlimited do overs option, the winning team is the one that finishes first.

Prize

If you want to offer a prize, an option that the youth will love is to let the winners throw the rest of the balloons at the leaders!

If you liked this idea, check out all our other game ideas.

Question: Have you ever played this water balloon relay? If so, did you add in anything else or have different rules? Or can you think of any other good prizes/rewards for the winners? Let us know in the comments below.

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How To Play Spongehead – Water Relay Games

December 3, 2012 By Stephen Pepper Leave a Comment

This week’s youth group game idea is Spongehead, a water relay that ensures all your young people will get nice and wet.

Here’s how to play it:

Resources

Large sponges
Large buckets
Small buckets
Water
Measuring jug
Towels

Preparation

Fill up the large buckets with water, put a sponge in each of them and set them out in a row – this will be the start line.

Put the small buckets in a row that’s parallel to the large buckets, but about 10-20 yards away.

Teams

Split the group into equal-sized teams and have each team stand in a line behind a large bucket.

Rules

The first person from each team picks up the sponge, holds it above their head and runs to the smaller bucket. They then have to wring the sponge to try to get as much water into the smaller bucket as possible.

Once they’ve done that, they run back and pass the sponge to the next person in line who does the same thing.

Winning Team

This will be the first team that fills the smaller bucket. If none of the teams manage to completely fill the smaller bucket by the time the larger bucket is empty, the winning team will be the one that managed to transfer the most water into the smaller bucket (using the measuring jug if necessary).

Tips

This water relay game will ensure that everyone gets completely soaked, so it might be worth letting the youth group know in advance that they may want bring a change of clothes.
Some players will try to avoid getting wet by not holding the sponge over their head. If you spot anyone doing this, make them go back and re-soak the sponge (or shoot them with a super-soaker)

If you liked this water relay game, check out all our other games for youth groups.

Question: What other elements would you add to Spongehead to make it even more fun? Let us know in the comments below.

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