Outdoor Games for Kids

Check how accurately you can toss -- and improve your throws -- with Pine Cone Pitch, an outdoor game for kids. Just gather fallen pine cones from your lawn and make a game of it.

What You'll Need:

Step 1: Gather as many cones as you can in two large buckets or baskets.

Step 2: Take turns emptying the baskets and refilling them from 15 paces.

See how accurately you can toss the pine cones. How many did you sink? How many missed? Try from different distances. When you're done, you can tell mom and dad that you did your chore -- and had fun, too!

Need to master quick turns for a competitive sport like football or soccer? Keep reading to learn how the In and Out game can help you.

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Learning to turn on a dime while running isn't easy -- but the In and Out Game can help. Swerving in and out of the lineup in this outdoor game for kids can help you dodge your opponent's defensive press the next time you play a competitive game.

What You'll Need:

Step 1: Arrange six items roughly 10 feet apart on a long playing field. The items could be cones, sandbags, backpacks -- anything that won't blow away or hurt you if you wind up zigging where you should have zagged.

Step 2: Run in and out of the line, side to side, at different speeds. Try it at an easy jog. Try it a little faster. Try it at an all-out run.

Before you know it, you'll be ready to dodge the defense in football, soccer, or any other game.

Read the next page for a sidewalk game that will have you racing to find the most colors.

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You'll need a partner, a timer, and a sharp eye for the Color Finders Race. Get ready, get set! This mental challenge of this sidewalk game is hard to resist.

What You'll Need:

Step 1: Sit outside on a sidewalk with a friend. Make sure you each have a piece of chalk.

Step 2: Set the timer for one minute -- no more, no less.

Step 3: As soon as you say "go," start searching for as many colors as you can find. Anything in plain sight counts, from tree bark (brown) to hubcaps (silver).

Step 4: Each time you see a color, write its name on the sidewalk with chalk. The player who lists the most colors in one minute wins.

Look on the next page for a outdoor game for kids that you can win by standing perfectly still.

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Hold that pose, and you're a winner in Swing the Statues. Exercise your imagination! But play this easy outdoor game on grass or sand because it involves falling down.

What You'll Need:

Step 1: One at a time, a player chosen as "It" takes each other player by the hand and swings him or her in a circle.

Step 2: When "It" lets go, the player stays frozen in whatever position he or she lands in.

Step 3: When all players have been swung and released, "It" becomes an art critic, walking among the statues and "critiquing" each one. The "statues" must stay frozen -- no smiling or laughing! A statue that fails to freeze is out. The ones who stay statuesque are the winners.

Step 4: Choose a new "It" for the next round.

A variation: After swinging all the statues, "It" chooses a category -- such as zoo animals, cartoons, kitchen tools, or famous people. Players must remain in their positions, but they may move any arm or leg they're not using to support their weight to try and resemble something in that category.

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