Expertises: Painting, Art, Drawing, Pastel
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Who doesn’t love playing with balloons? I know, I know, someone who has let go of the inner child like those children in Derry confronting the clown Pennywise. But, for any fun-loving adult balloons and balloon games remind of the good old days when they were as free of mind as the balloons that floated around.
Here are some really fun and creative balloon games that are popular with kids at parties and sometimes quite educational too.
1. Googly Balloons
An Indoor party game, this is all kinds of fun, starting with the name itself. . It can be played by two or a dozen friends! You’ll need a balloon of medium size for each of the players, and consequently a small marble for each balloon.
Inserting a marble in the balloon, blow it up and fasten it and throw the balloons in the air. The balloon will swerve due to the marble’s weight and the kids will need to keep the balloons afloat for as long as they can. The one that floats the longest wins.
via ohhappyday.com
2. Balloon Seize
Another indoor game but for a much larger crowd than usual. Perfect for a big birthday party or your local school fair, Balloon Seize requires at least five to ten players and about twenty to thirty balloons.
Time-bound and requiring a large space, this game is all about catching them all, to paraphrase the Pokemon tagline. Once you inflate the balloons, dump them in the empty room, and one by one each kid needs to try gathering as many balloons as they can with only their hands without dropping any on the ground.
Note: Nobody can help the contestant and the time starts the moment you say ‘Go!’. The one to collect the most within the time limit wins.
via momjunction.com
3. Balloon and Bubble Gum Relay
Changing the scenery a bit, this one’s a standard game of relay to be played outdoors. This too needs a large open space that has nothing to act as an obstacle for the players. You’ll need a bubblegum, wrapped of course, for each player and balloons. Ideally for six to twelve players, they will be segregated in groups of up to four.
What you do next is a bit more complex than the games suggested above. First, you need to make a track with either rope, white powder or chalk and make four tracks if there are four teams. These tracks need to be of a considerable length.
Now take the balloons and put a wrapped bubblegum in each before you inflate and fasten them. You can add candies or pennies to the balloons for extra rewards. Put each of them at the opposite end of the tracks.
The kids will need to go in turns for this, with each kid from each team competing. The first set of players will need to crawl to the balloons, burst them, chew the bubblegums and blow balloons that way and then return to the starting point for the next member to be tagged and put onto the task. The victory is for the team that manages to finish first.
4. Balloon Rockets
You’ve heard of Bottle Rockets, but Balloon Rockets? Intrigued, aren’t you? It’s quite simple and can be done indoors by kids who are six years old or older.
Take a drinking straw, a balloon and a six feet long yarn piece. Next, arrange for some tape, a pair of scissors and a couple of chairs. Maintaining a six feet distance, place the chairs facing each other and tie the string to one end of the chair. Take the drinking straw and put it through the string and fasten the other end to the other chair. Apply sticking tape to the straw, just a couple of small cut outs, at a distance of one inch.
Here comes the balloon part of this interesting experiment. Once you have inflated the balloon, keep it unknotted, only fastened with your fingers. Now, one kid will need to carry this balloon to the straw, and another attach it to the tape. Pulling the straw to the end of the string along with the balloon, stop until the unfastened side of the balloon can touch the chair.
You can guess what happens next. Once you let the balloon loose, it carries the straw with it to the other end.
To make it more interesting, you can have the kids attach small appendages to the straws to give them the appearance of rockets and increase the distance of the chairs a bit more. If you have evenly placed trees on your lawn, the same game can be played outdoors and with tapes on the two sides to attach two balloons instead of one for that extra push.
via almostunschoolers.blogspot.in
5. Glow In The Dark Balloons
This game doesn’t require a specific number of participants nor does it needs a number of items to play. All you require is a lot of big balloons and a lot of small-sized glow sticks.
Take a glow stick and a balloon and shake the glow stick till it glows brightly. If it’s a long glow stick, you can break it in half, and if it’s a short one, well, you won’t need to break it!
Here’s what you’ll need to do next and this can be in either order. You can either blow the balloon to full size and then insert the glow stick in it, or you can insert the glow stick before you blow the balloon.
Once the kids have done this, you can shut the lights and let the kids see the magic, or you can ask them to be a bit more crafty and cover or color the balloons with differently shaped tape and paper. This way when the lights go off, the balloons will display glowing shapes. For a better effect, black paper or black tape can be used for making the shapes. The glowing effect will thus be around the shapes and will give off an inverted feel.
Additionally, if you have a pool in your backyard, you can make small boats with cardboard and fasten the balloons to the boats with a string and set them off in the pool to float.
You can light up the sky with your colorful and crafty balloons by filling them up with helium instead and instead of boats, making small cardboard boxes and you have your very own armada of glowing balloons!
via partyideashq.com
6. Balloon Hovercraft
What’s cooler than a rocket? A hovercraft of course. Now your kids can make one for their own, right at home and with stuff that doesn’t require a multi-million dollar funding from Tesla.
This is a game for two to half a dozen people, but you can encourage more to join. What they’ll need is a glue gun, a thumbtack, a cap from a soda bottle and medium-sized balloons. And yes, CDS that aren’t working anymore.
With the thumbtack make holes in the soda cap. Taking the hot glue gun stick the top part of the soda cap’s round edge to the CD’s round center. Do not let the kids use the hot glue gun as it can hurt them. Once you have covered the hole, blow up a balloon and twirl the neck to retain the air. Now, cover the soda cap completely with the balloon’s opening. Remember to hold the balloon’s neck tightly and do not let the air pass yet.
Put the CD on the floor or a table and release your hold of the balloon neck. As the neck untwists and releases air through the holes in the cap, the CD will move forward smoothly like a hovercraft.
You can encourage the kids to decorate the CDs with glowing and colorful tape and add lightweight lego blocks to give a more sci-fi distinct look to their hovercrafts.
via youtube.com
7. Balloon Water Bending
You’re surprised. I know. Bending water? This doesn’t sound like a simple and fun activity for kids at a party. But, it is, along with being an interesting experiment for kids to learn and all with just balloons and there is no limit to the number of people.
Ask the kids to rub the inflated balloons against their shirt or head or hair to create friction, and once they’ve rubbed enough, they should check for static electricity by holding the balloons over theirs heads. If the hair stands up, it means its static. Have the kids be around a tap and the moment the balloon goes static, turn the tap on and place the balloon near the flowing stream. Due to the electricity, the water will gravitate towards the balloon.
Simple and fun and something to make the kids go ‘wow!’ at the end of the experiment.
8. Ice Balloons
This one’s for the winter days. A perfect activity for kids on Hanukkah, Christmas and New Year while the adults are busy “adulting.” It can be done both outdoors and indoors, and there can be any number of kids engaging here.
You’ll need a bunch of big balloons, water, of course, a pair of scissors, and watercolors.
Now onto the activity. This one doesn’t need air from the kids; the winter is there to do their job. You need to fill the balloon with water. But not all of it. Just a third of the balloon. Now, you can muddle the water inside with watercolor. You wouldn’t need much. Just a few drops of different colors.
Once you’ve filled and knotted them up, put them outside in a tray for the cold wind and snow to work their magic. Once the balloons have frozen, take the scissors and cut out the balloons and you have a fantastic set of ice sculptures that shimmer with a vibrant palette!
9. Balloon Catching Funnel
This one is a bit of a test for the young ones. After all, they are tasked with catching a balloon with a funnel, albeit small ones. It’s best recommended for three to six players and can be played either indoors or outdoors but in an open space.
There should be an equal number of balloons and funnels for each kid. Throw the balloons in the air and catch them using the funnels before they fall on the ground. Pretty basic on paper, but tricky in practice. Whoever keeps the balloon off the ground longest wins.
10. Bubble Butt
Probably the simplest game on this list and also the most popular for the same reason. It can be played both indoors and outdoors. Best for more than five people, you’ll need to assign a chair and a balloon for each player.
Keep the chairs in a straight line side by side with a distance of two feet between each and stick the balloons on the seats with tape. Slap the balloons lightly to check if they are fastened properly to the chairs.
Once ready, make the kids stand at the other end of the space and on the count of three-run to the chairs and sit with as much pressure as they can and burst them. This is where the fun ends, and the real race begins. The kid to reach back to the original place first wins.
11. Stuff The Balloon
This one’s uber cool but to win it the kids, preferably of an older age, need to be a bit ingenious. It’s best for a group of four and above. Take two pairs of large pants and tees and small yet long balloons.
Whatever the number of participants, divide it into teams of equal number and give a pair of tee and pant to each team. Remember these pieces of clothing need to be oversized. Here’s why. One of the teammates gets to wear them over whatever clothes they are already wearing.
Once ready, the teammates on the count of three will inflate and stuff the balloons in the tees and pants. The team to stuff the most number of balloons within the allotted time wins.
via pinterest
12. Burst Balloons With The Sun
A chiefly outdoor game, it is both a science experiment and a cool party engagement. Usually involving a couple kids or more, this game requires a magnifying glass for kids, some big balloons, a fence or clothesline, and a few thumbtacks.
As evident by the name, it’s a daylight game. Using thumbtacks or a string stick the balloons to a fence or clothesline once they have been inflated.
Once the balloons are arranged, have the kids sit or stand to face the balloons. At the count of three, the kids should transfer the sunlight from the magnifying glass onto the balloons, keeping the glass three inches from the balloons. Once the sunlight intensifies through the magnifying glass, the light will focus onto the balloons like a small dot and with the heat burst the balloons.
Cue the kids saying, ‘Cool!’ with an adorable sense of irony.
via youtube.com
13. Bounce And Paint Balloon Game
Another one on the creative end of the spectrum, it’s perfect for kids of any age and even for you! Preferably indoors, you can engage more than two kids with this game with no upper limit necessary.
Your requirements are easily washable paints, bowls to mix them, a packet of balloons small enough to fit in your hand and large sheets of chart or normal paper.
Assign a balloon and a sheet of paper to each kid and taking the containers, mix the paints for the balloons to be dipped in them. Once the balloons have sufficient color on them, bounce them against the sheets of paper to create a wide array of shapes and patterns.
You can add to the fun by doing another activity. Fill the balloons with colored water and burst them a couple of feet above the paper and see the splash make colorful dashes onto the sheet.
14. Screaming Balloons
If you want to add life to your party, make the balloons scream! Yes, you read it right, and it’s quite simple. All it needs is a bunch of hex nuts and balloons, divided equally among the kids participating.
Before you inflate the balloons, put a hex nut in each of them and fasten them with a string or knot it tight. Once ready, each kid needs to spin the balloons in a circular motion with their hands. Whenever the hex touches the walls of the balloon, it makes a screaming sound.
And once it does that, the kids will scream too. In excitement.
via momjunction.com
15. Burst The Balloons
Who doesn’t like doing that? Especially when the party’s coming to an end, and the balloons have nowhere else to go. And for that reason, this makes for a perfect end of the party game that can be played both indoors and outdoors and have any number of kids participate.
Just get a few strings and tie the balloons to each participant’s left leg. The kids will then chase each other around trying to burst the balloons with their right legs, and the otherwise can be done too. The kid who survives till the end without getting the balloon burst wins.
via blog.partyworld.ie
Featured image via wallpaperwarrior.com
So, which one did you find best for your kid’s party? Perhaps you have a few favorites? You can, of course, have more than one of these games at the party. After all, just like the crowd, the more, the merrier.
