Water Balloon Games for Kids – The 10 Best Fun Splashy Games

Gleaming eyes, loud screams and ultimate fun. These water balloon games for kids are a great idea for a hot day, a kids’ party, garden party and pool party in summer! These are the best 10 game ideas!

Heat, play, fun – water fight! Whether it’s a summer afternoon or a children’s or garden party, when you offer children the opportunity to play with water, every other game idea pales in comparison. Of all the water games I know and enjoy playing with the kids, water balloons are indisputably among the best that mum and dad can buy. At least, if you take the volume level and the screams of enthusiasm as a yardstick. 🙂

These 10 water balloon games for kids are very different in their intensity of movement – in some of them the kids really work off their energy, in others it’s more about skill, team spirit and togetherness. And, of course, getting wet and wetting the others!

Water ballon does not automatically mean water fight! Even though it almost always happens at some point that a game ends in a wild water battle and no fibre on the body remains dry. 🙂 Some of the water ballon games for kids like the water balloon shower, the nose slalom or colour bomb kicking are already a lot of fun for kids from 4 years.

For other water balloon games for kids, such as the water balloon slinging game and ping pong splash, the kids should already be able to catch and throw water balloons. For almost all of these water balloon games for children, however, it is possible to simplify the rules without any problems.

Summer – holiday time and you’re looking for great ideas to keep the kids busy? If you don’t have any water balloons in the house, Abenteuer Freundschaft has great ideas for outdoor activities for families and creative ideas for at home.

10 Water Balloon Games for Kids That Are Perfect for Hot Days

The name alone unleashes the imagination: water balloon! What great things can you do with the wet balloons! From the classic water fight, where you just throw them wildly, target throwing or even hurling, balance games to funny games of skill like the nose slalom. The most you need for most games are things you have at home anyway. For example, anything you can use to build an obstacle course. A few of our water balloon games for children require some preparation.

1. Ping Pong Splash – The Slippery Catch and Throw Game

For this water balloon game, everyone chooses a partner and lines up facing each other. Now all the players rub themselves with soap until they are all slippery and each pair gets a water balloon. At a start signal, the pairs toss the water balloon back and forth to each other. As soon as a balloon bursts, the couple is eliminated and all the other couples take a step backwards and throw the water balloon to each other again. This goes on and on until only one pair is left. After each throw, the thrower has to move one step away until the bomb bursts. The winner is the last person to catch the unbroken bomb.

What Do I Need?

• soap
• Water balloons

2. Hot Bomb – A Water Ballon Game for Children Who Can Catch and Throw

All the children stand in a circle and the music starts. They throw a water balloon to each other and the child throwing it calls out the name of the child who has to catch the bomb. Whenever the music stops, the child who has the hot bomb in his hand at that moment and has burnt his fingers is eliminated. If a child does not catch the hot bomb and it survives the impact on the floor intact, he or she may pick it up and continue playing. However, if the water balloon bursts, the child is also eliminated. The winner is the last child left.

The game becomes even funnier when you poke a small hole in the water balloon with the needle. Then the water splashes out of it and it is harder to catch. You can also leave out the music and just let the children eliminate the water when it bursts. However, you should make sure that the balloons are full so that they burst quickly and don’t stay in the game too long.

What Do I Need?

• Music
• Water balloon
• possibly needle

3. Water Bomb Shower – One of the Fun Throwing Water Balloon Games for Children Aged 4 and Over

Attach two balls to a stand each. Make sure that they are firmly attached and do not fall off easily. Now spray both of them with lots of shaving foam. Mark a throwing line with tape that must not be crossed. The children now form two teams and are each given a tub of water balloons. They throw the water balloons at their ball. The team that washes its ball clean first is the winner.

What Do I Need?

• Shaving foam
• 2 (water) balls
• Stand
• 2 tubs with water balloons
• Coloured adhesive tape

4. Nose Slalom – A Game of Skill for Small Teams

Mark a start and finish line 6-8 metres apart opposite each other. Spread flower pots or put sticks in the ground along the straight stretch. Form two teams. Each team gets an identical number of water balloons. At the start signal, the first two players start at the same time and try to bring a water ballon from the start to the finish as quickly as possible using their noses in a slalom. As soon as the bomb is at the finish, the player runs back and high-fives the next one. The game is over when a team has brought all the water ballons to the finish. The team with the most water balloons wins.

What Do I Need?

• Coloured adhesive tape
• Sticks or flower pots
• Water balloons

5. Drop the Bomb! Water Games for Children From 4 Years as a Water Fight

This water balloon game falls into the category “water fight”. The aim is to crush water balloons as quickly as possible.

Fill many balloons with water and distribute the water balloons on the ground. The fuller the balloons are, the easier it is to crush them. You get one point for each balloon you crush. You can fill a few balloons less and mark them with a Sharpie; these will then give you more points (e.g. 3 points instead of 1 point). The game is over when all the balloons have been crushed. The child who has collected the most points wins.

Tip: You can also divide the children into 2 teams and let two children compete against each other one after the other. Both teams get an identical number of water balloons. A competition is over when an athlete has first crushed all the water balloons and scored a point for his team. Then the next two children compete against each other until it is everyone’s turn. The team with the most points wins.

What Do I Need?

• Water balloons

6. Water Balloon Fight With Catching and Throwing

The aim of this game is to catch as many opposing water balloons as possible with your team.

Divide all the children into two teams at the beginning and equip each team with 2 bowls, one empty and one filled with the identical number of water balloons.

Mark a line at a distance of 8-10 metres (the further apart the harder) that each team is not allowed to cross and have the teams line up opposite each other.

Now the teams throw the water balloons at each other and try to catch as many opposing bombs as possible at the same time. The captured bombs go into the empty bowl at the beginning and are not thrown again. The team with the most bombs caught at the end wins.

What Do I Need?

• Small balloons
• Water
• 4 large bowls or large containers, e.g. wash bowls
• Coloured adhesive tape

7. Egg Run With Water Balloons

For this water balloon game for children, you first have to set up an obstacle course. Mark the start and finish and provide each child with a spoon and a water ballon. The game works like running with eggs, except that instead of eggs there are water ballon on the spoons. The children run through the obstacle course one after the other, balancing the water balloon on the spoon. You stop the time that a child needs to run through the obstacle course. If a child drops his water balloon or it bursts, the child has to go back to the start and start again with a new water balloon. The child who takes the shortest time to complete the obstacle course wins.

What Do I Need?

• Large spoons or sand shovels
• Water balloons
• Hurdle course
• Coloured tape or pylons / markers
• Stopwatch / smartphone with stopwatch

8. Target Throwing – Water Balloon Games for Children Who Can Throw Specifically

Divide the children into two teams. Each team gets an empty bucket and a container with an identical number of water balloons. Now the two teams line up opposite each other in two rows and place buckets in front of them at least 8 metres apart. Each child takes a water balloon and at the same time they all throw their water balloons at the target. The team with the most water ballons in the bucket – including their burst shells – wins.

What Do I Need?

• Water balloons in 2 containers
• bucket

9. Colour Bomb Kicking in the Paddling Pool for Children From 4 Years

Fill an empty paddling pool with the same number of water balloons in as many colours as there are children playing. Each child is allowed to choose a colour. At your start signal, the children now try to crush the water balloons of their own colour. The first one to burst all the water balloons of his or her colour is the winner!

If more children are playing, you can form teams of two for one colour. The aim is to defend your own colour from being trampled and at the same time to trample the opposing water balloons. The team whose water balloon(s) is (are) the last one(s) left wins.

What Do I Need?

• Paddling pool
• water balloons

10. Throwing Water Ballons – A Great Station Game for Children From 8 Years

Preparation: Design a course with 10 stations, each with a  printout of a smiley face. Provide a bowl of water balloons at each station. Mark the path that the children are to walk with chalk spray arrows.

The children now form pairs. Each pair gets a towel. The first pair stretches the towel between them and holds it tightly at the ends and puts two water balloons on it and one player gets a slingshot on a ribbon. At the start signal, they run together to the first station and each takes a water balloon. Both players now take turns shooting the slingshot at the smiley target at the station. As soon as one player has hit the target, they grab two new water balloons from the bowl, stretch the towel between them, place them on top and run to the next station. As soon as the team has scored at the last station, the time it took is announced and written on the board. The team that has completed the course in the shortest time wins.

Ideas for stations

• 3m + 8m large tarpaulin rubbed with soap with be crossed together
• Two chairs to climb up and drop the smiley from there
• Slalom around obstacles like flower pots
• At the end there are 5 water balloons scattered on the ground, which you have to collect and use as your first ammunition
• walk up and down a staircase together

What Do I Need?

• Water balloons in buckets
• 1 towel per team
• Sling on a ribbon to hang around your neck
• Targets
• 10 laminated printouts of smilies with different facial expressions
• Parcours with stations
• If necessary, chalk spray
• stopwatch
• Board for noting times

We hope you have lots of splashing fun with our water balloon games for kids! 😉

Abenteuer Freundschaft has lots of great games for families and tips for kids’ parties, scavenger hunts and more! Make the most of this wonderful time with your favourite people and get inspired with tips for leisure activities for families, friends and couples.

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