Searching for cool pool game ideas? We've created a list of popular games below.
Have the kids wait in a designated space (in or out of the water) and toss water balloons for them to catch. After throwing a couple, tell them that they don't get anymore unless they sing a song (can be anything like twinkle twinkle little star, row, row, row your boat, or humpty dumpty...) Every time they sing a song, throw in a few more balloons and try a different song or make them say something like: "I love swimming!" or "Happy Birthday!" Keep doing this until you are out of balloons.
This is a relay race, which needs 2 teams with an equal amount of players. You also need enough water balloons for one for each player-and a few extra for mistakes. Make start and finish lines about 20 feet apart. Place the water balloons in two piles at the starting line. Call out "go" and the first person on each team picks up their balloon and runs to the finish line. There, they must sit on their balloon and pop it and then run back to the start line. Then the next player grabs their balloon and does the same thing. If a player drops his balloon, or pops it on the way, he must go back to the start line and take a new balloon and start again. The first team to finish popping all their balloons is the winning team.
Have two groups; one for the cannonballs and the other group a team of judges. The cannonball group line up behind a diving board and have to make the biggest splash to get the highest vote. The judges are the voters and give each person a vote out of ten. An adult is needed to decide what the majority of the judges want to give each person.
Preferably in a smaller pool; it's just like regular frozen tag, but once tagged, a person has to swim under your legs to free you.
Everyone walks clockwise around the swimming pool without stopping. One per is in the water with a water hose under the water, which is turned on. Everyone sings, "London river's flooding up, flooding up . . ." as the people walk whenever "flooding up" is sung the person in the water can move the hose out of the water and spray the person. THEN, the part in the song, which says, "Take the key and lock her up," you will hold the hose out to a person and this person holds the hose and jumps into the water.
Throw a large amount of pennies (depending on the number of kids) into a good size pool. Cover about a third of the pennies with white out and send the children in to dive for them. If a child finds a penny with white out, that child gets a prize. Great for all ages! Shallow for the youngest and deeper for the older kids.
SEAHORSES AND MERMAIDS
This game is played in the shallow end of a swimming pool. You need at least 5 people- 2 seahorses, 2 mermaids, and one caller, but the more people you have, the better.
The seahorses make a circle in the water and the mermaids stand behind the seahorses. The caller calls out "Mermaids", or "Seahorses". If the caller says "Mermaids", the mermaids must swim like a mermaid with legs together, clockwise around the circle and take their place behind the seahorse. The last mermaid in her place is out and so is her partner. If the caller says "Seahorses", the seahorse must back out between the mermaid's fluke (legs), underwater. The seahorse must them swim clockwise around the circle, back under the fluke and stand up. The last seahorse in her place is out and her partner is out too. The last couple standing is the winner.
Have the kids line up beside a length of a pool, (25m is ideal). One by one they have to start at one end and swim as far as they can underwater, until they have to come up for air. Once they surface, have them sit on the pool deck, beside the place where they came up. The top 5 or 10 people who went the farthest get a prize.