Camp or Party Games and Relays

This past weekend we had the privilege of attending our church family camp. We had a great time growing as a church family. They did a lot of family friendly games and activities that I thought would be fun to pass along in case you needed ideas for games and relays to play at retreats, camps or parties.

1. Mattress Pass – Your team sits facing each other with legs out. Then, you put a small child on a mattress and pass the mattress over the legs to the end. You then put the next child on and pass them down the opposite direction. Go back and forth with a determined number of children. We had 4 kids passed back and forth down the line. 

 

2. Dizzy Bat Relay – One person runs down to a bat. They need to spin around the bat 10 times with their forehead on the bat. Then, they need to run back to their line and high five the next person who goes next. First team finishing first wins.

3. Pass the Water Relay – Everyone is given a cup. There is a bucket of water at the beginning. The first person scoops out the water and passes it to the next person in line. The team keeps passing it down the line until it reaches the bucket at the end. After a determined amount of time (or when people seem to be winding down), everyone stops and you measure to see which team has the most water in their final bucket.

4. Water Fight – The last activity naturally just fed into a small water fight. 

5. Water Balloon Toss – Toss the balloon to a determined partner. If it does’t pop, you stay in and step back, creating a larger gap between you and your partner. Everyone is passing and stepping back at the same time. Last balloon standing wins. This time it was my husband. 

6. Circular Tug-of-War – We had four different teams playing tug-of-war in a circle. The goal was to get the rope and your team back to your own cone. We did it by age group.

7. Shaving Cream Fight – Adult team members from each team get shaving cream cans. They are in charge of giving out the shaving cream to everyone. Then, it’s just a big shaving cream fight. Make sure to have a safe zone for those that don’t want to participate.

8. Blind Folded Exercise Ball – This is like a blindfolded version of musical chairs. You may have seen it on Ellen. A small group of selected individuals get to participate in this game. They are blindfolded (ours had blacked out goggles). When the music begins, these people need to dance. When the music stops, they need to find an exercise ball to sit on. There is always one less ball then people. 

9. Hamburger Relay – This is a relay where there are teams of up to 10 players. Each player wears a shirt that represents a part of a hamburger. Tan = bun (x2), Brown = Hamburger, White = Onion, Red = Ketchup, Yellow = Mustard, Green = Lettuce, Dark Green = Pickles, Orange = Cheese, Red = Tomato…shirts can be labelled for clarity. The leader then calls out their hamburger order. The group needs to dog pile with the correct toppings. So, the leader might call out, “I’ll take a hamburger with ketchup and mustard only. They need to stack themselves as a bun, ketchup, mustard, burger and a bun on top. The innards can be in any order. Keep track of points per team. Make sure you know your group well and have people who are comfortable with this type of interaction. 

Here’s a piece of my church family.