Offline Games

Red Light / Green Light

In this game, one person plays the "stoplight" and the rest try to reach him or her. At the start, all the players form a line about 15 feet away from the stoplight. The stoplight faces away from everyone and says "green light"! This means the players can move towards the stoplight as fast as they can. At any point, the stoplight may say "red light!" and turn around. If any of the players are caught moving after this, they are out! Play continues when the stoplight turns back around and says "green light". The stoplight wins if all the players are out before anyone is able to touch him or her. Otherwise, the first player to touch the stoplight wins the game and earns the right to be "stoplight" for the next game.

Sprinkler Musical Chairs

Hook up a sprinkler to your hose, but don't turn it on yet. Instruct players to move around the sprinkler by dancing, hopping or striking funny poses. When the sprinkler is turned on, the players must freeze in their positions while the sprinkler gets them wet. The first player to break his or her pose is in charge of the hose this time, and the game continues in this manner.

Balloon Volleyball

Take a rope and hang it across the yard or room just above the players’ heads. Split the players into teams of equal size, with one team on one side of the rope and the other team on the other side. The teams hit the balloon back and forth over the rope. When a team lets the balloon hit a wall or the ground, the other team scores a point.

For an even more interesting and challenging game, use two balloons. Or put a small marble or button in the balloon to make the balloon fly in crazy directions!

Balloon Air Dribble Relay

Form two teams of equal size and have players stand in a line. On a signal to start, the first player has to walk to the other side of the room and back to the line while dribbling a balloon in the air. The second player starts as soon as the first crosses the starting line, and the game continues this way. If someone lets the balloon hit the floor, they must start over. The first team to finish is declared the winner.

Fruit Salad*

Players form a circle of chairs or pillows. The “it” stands in the middle of the circle. All players in the circle choose one of four fruits, such as apple, orange, strawberry or banana. The players keep their choice a secret, which stays the same for the entire game. The “it” player tries to get a seat on a chair or pillow by one of two ways:

1. "It" calls a fruit, which signals everyone who chose that fruit to find another seat or square. (Players are not allowed to come back to the seat they just left, or move to the right or left one seat.) "It" tries to get a seat during the exchange and the player remaining without a seat or pillow is "it."
2. "It" calls "Fruit Salad," which means all players must find a new seat or pillow. "It" tries to find a new seat and the player remaining becomes "it."

Touchdown*

Draw two parallel lines about 60 feet apart. Two teams face each other; each standing on one of the lines. One team goes into a huddle, and the members decide which player is going to carry an object (something small like a coin or paperclip) to the opponent’s goal line. The team moves out of the huddle and lines up like a football team. On the charge signal “hike,” the players run toward the opponents’ goal line, each player holding his/her hands closed as if carrying the object. The opponents also run forward and tag the players. Once tagged, a player must stop right away and open both hands to show whether he/she has the object. If the player carrying the object reaches the goal line without being tagged, he/she calls “Touchdown!” and scores six points. The scoring team keeps the object and gets another try. If the player carrying the object is tagged before crossing the goal line, the object is given to the other team. That team then goes into a huddle and tries to run the object across the field to score.

*Source: Promoting Lifetime Activity for Youth Game Book