As friends come together, choosing a game that everyone will enjoy can be a challenge. What happens often, sadly, is that each person takes out an electronic gadget and does his own thing. This article offers a variety of ideas for fun games to play with friends inside and outside, on a sunny day and when it’s cold or snowy, and with just one or two friends or a large group. Use these games at parties, sleepwalks–anytime you and your friends get together.
Fun Games to Play with Friends Outside
Capture the Flag
A fun and interactive game, it remains a favourite for children to capture the flag. Split the party into two teams. Each team defends its “flag,” which can be an entity when trying to duplicate the flag of the other team. If a player is tagged by an opponent’s team member, they will either be out of the game, or you can determine the person will be frozen until a member of their own team has tagged. The game is won by the teams who win the flag.
Obstacle Course
Using popular yard items like lawn chairs, garden hoses, and picnic tables to set up an obstacle course outside. When running the course, have players walk, skip, hop, etc. Keep track of completion times and see who is the fastest to complete the course.
Freeze Tag
Freeze tag is energy-intensive and works best for a large group. The person who is “It” tags the other players where they are frozen and can only be unfrozen when someone else tags them. You can also play music when playing the game, and when the music stops, everyone has to freeze.
Instead, to unfreeze them, somebody has to go between a frozen player’s thighs. Have more than one person be “It” for a very large group.
Scavenger Hunt
Have some small items on hand for a backyard, scavenger hunt, from your local dollar store. Hide things that make a list of where they are placed so you can make sure they’re all stored. Provide players with a list of clue things such as “small, green, and wheels” (a toy car) or “Round and red” (a small bouncy ball). The game is won by the player who finds the most objects. Pair players or split players into teams for a larger group.
Ball Bopping
For this game, buy cheap inflatable balls. Use at least three, but if you want, you can use more. The game’s aim is to keep the balls in the air. Players can use any part of the body to do this. They can’t hang on to the ball, though. Children disperse through the play area and a ball is thrown into the air. The objective is to use every part of the body to hold the ball in the air. Count how many times during five-minute playtime the balls hit the ground. Every round, the players are trying to make fewer mistakes.
Tug of War
The best games of Tug of War occur when teams play equally, not only in age or height but in the skill of the whole team. You might find that on one end you have to have ten smaller kids and on the other five big kids. Your game will last longer and be more fun with a bit of preparation.
Balloon Stomp
The outdoor game kids never seem to be tired of, as the name implies, stomping on the balloons attached to the other players ‘ ankles and pop them up as their target. Players are not allowed to put their hands on the balloons or grab the other players. For each player, start with enough inflated balloons. If you want to set the tone of the game, play fast music. The last person who wins the game with an intact balloon. If you want the game to last longer, blow up enough balloons to play several rounds.
Relay Races
Kids can play them for hours with the many variations of relay races available. Relay races encourage teamwork, satisfy a competitive appetite, and are great fun. Try one of these types:
Relaxing race of hardboiled eggs–when their egg fall, team members are out.
Easy relay tag races where the target runs quickly.
Dress up relay races–each turn requires team members to dress and undress.
Water bucket relay races–team members fill every turn with empty buckets and at the end of the race wins the team with the most water left.
Fun Warm Weather Games to Play with Friends That Use Water
Water Balloon Toss
Form the children’s party into two teams and have them throwback and forth water balloons. The team left at the end of the game with their balloon(s) is the winner.
Sprinkler Tag
Tag is always enjoyable and it’s even more fun on a hot day by adding a sprinkler. Therefore, it keeps us calm! Just set up two sprinklers in the garden and you’re ready to play. Split the children into two teams. Place a safe zone where players can not be tagged and wait for an out zone where players are tagged. At the completion of a set time, the team with the most players left wins.
Fun Games to Play with Friends Inside
Paper-Bag Skits
Fill balls of paper with things like a jewellery piece, a belt, a watch, or a glove. Divide the children into groups of three or four with at least five items packed in each bag. Allow ten to fifteen minutes to use the props in the bag to create a short play or skit. They introduce their skit to the rest of the group when the kids are ready.
Board Game Tournament
Simply pull out all the board games, set up play areas, and have a fun tournament with winners. Instead, list the players and play against each other all those with the same number and then change the numbers so that everyone can compete with different people in the games.
Play games on the wall. Take out the Yahtzee or Scrabble. You can hang out with large or small groups and play all sorts of games. Hold and play against each other in a tournament.
Group Storytime Game
Sit in a circle with all your friends. Write down nouns on paper slips easily, fold them up for each player, and hand them out. Take turns that integrate every person’s word into a plot. Give a minute for each person’s part of the story. When told this way, some stories are really funny.
Watch Classic TV Shows
Ask an adult what television shows they loved when they were young and watch some of them online. Some funny episodes of shows like My Favorite Martian, Lucy, ALF, and Get Smart.
Make Paper Airplanes
Provide for colouring paper and markers or crayons. Search for clever ways of folding paper aircraft online. So fly them and see whose plane is flying the highest, fastest, straightest, and so on.
Rock, Paper, Scissors
Find a partner for your friends and play Rock, Paper, Scissors. “Rock” is a fist, “Paper” is a flat hand, and “Scissors” is like scissors using the pointer and middle fingers. Players make a fist and shake it three times before choosing either rock, paper, or scissors. Rock cracks scissors, the paper is cut by scissors and rock is hidden by paper. Whoever wins the most turns gets the first turn in a game or wins the match, pick three or five turns.
Video Game Tournament
Instead, set up a video game tournament if your mates do not like board games. And set up the player and bowl of electronic games, dance and play music, whatever you and your friends want.
Jacks
Jacks is a very old American game played with stones in the centre. You and your friends can either play in a local dollar store with stones or buy jacks. There are six metal jacks in a group of jacks, each with six points and a small ball. You bounce the ball and pick up jacks if you play with a rock. Toss the stone in the air and catch it if you use stones.
For one or many mates, you can play jacks. Players turn to see how many jacks they can pick up (stones). The following instructions use a ball, but with a stone, you can do the same, except that you’ll be tossing and catching instead of “bouncing.”
- The first player tosses the small ball into the air, scatters the jacks from their other hand, and catches the ball after one bounce. Hopefully, the jacks are not too far apart or too close. However they land, the player must play with them as they are.
- When you are playing, you must pick up the jacks and catch the ball with the same hand.
- A player can only touch the jacks they are picking up. If the player moves or touches a jack he is not picking up, his turn is over.
- A player only receives one try and if a mistake is made, the next player takes their turn.
- A turn must be repeated when a player makes a mistake and loses a turn.
Playing One Through Six Jacks
Players take turns trying to pick up a jack first, then two jacks, then three, and so on. All six jacks must be picked up by the first player, one by one. The player starts with “twosies,” “threesies,” etc. until all the jacks have been picked up all the way to “sixties.” Note, if the player is messing up or moving or hitting a jack they’re not picking up, the next player will take a turn. We have to start over when a player loses a turn. For instance, if a player fails to pick up five jacks at once, they have to start “fivesies” again when their turn comes back.
- Onesies. A player bounces the ball while picking up one jack, then transfers the jack to the other hand and continues picking up one at a time until all are picked up successfully.
- Twosies. A player bounces the ball while picking up two jacks, transfers the jacks to the other hand, and repeats two more times until all six jacks are picked up.
- Threesies. A player picks up three jacks at a time and transfers them to the other hand, still on one bounce for each three.
- Foursies. A player picks up four jacks while bouncing a ball once, and then picks up the remaining two jacks with another bounce.
- Fivesies. A player picks up five jacks, and then the remaining jack.
- The sixties. A player bounces the ball and picks up all six jacks at once.
How to Win Jacks
The player who manages to work their way to the end and on one bounce wins picks up all six jacks. Conversely, even if all players require multiple turns, the first person to successfully pick up six jacks wins.
Variations
- No Bounces. Pick up the jacks same as above, but fast enough the ball does not bounce – you catch it instead.
- Berries in a Basket. Cup one hand, throw the ball with the other hand and place the jacks in the cupped hand.
- Double Bounces. A variation that works well for children with small hands, the ball bounces twice while the jacks are being picked up.
- Switch-up. Switch your hands to opposite from the one you normally throw the ball with. If you usually throw left-handed, throw right-handed; if you usually throw right-handed, throw left-handed.
Play any of the games we’ve mentioned as your friends come over next time. And, get on the phone right now and invite your friends. You’re never going to be bored with our series of fun games to play with friends!
