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By Kim Vij

6 Ball Games Your Kids Will Love to Play

Large Purple Ball with hot pink stripes on grass with ball games for kids featured

One toy that all children are drawn to are balls. Big, small, textured you name it, balls are a sure hit with kids. Here are 6 Ball Games for kids that they’ll love to play outside.

large purple and pink plastic ball for ball games

One gift that we tend to get as a family each spring is a new ball. There’s just something pretty special about bouncing balls that scream come play. Let’s be honest at the store the bright shiny fully inflated balls scream, buy me!

Have you seen some of the new designs they have come up with? I think ball games are such an easy way to create outdoor games for kids to get them moving and playing together with friends and siblings.

Let me share with you a few new games with balls to add to your list of fun outdoor games.

Outdoor Ball Games for Kids
  • Make a Basket 
  • Through the Hoop
  • Over the Line 
  • Sidewalk Targets 
  • Box Bowling
  • Bottle Bowling 
two girls tossing balls into yellow bucket in backyard

Outdoor Ball Games for Kids

Disclosure: This post contains Amazon affiliate links.

Make a Basket 

One of my favorite ways to store all of our toys, especially balls is in a Large Plastic Tub with Rope Handles. A Laundry Basket or Rubbermaid Storage Container can work too. Plus you can use these for practicing making a basket with your balls!

Trust me, simple is good with ball games with kids.

Through the Hoop

Take your child’s Hula Hoop and use it for a target for the ball. You can lay it on the ground and challenge your child to make the ball land in the hole, almost like golf or you can hang it from a tree and try to make the ball fly through the hula hoop.

Great target practice for learning to throw which is useful for ball games.

Over the Line 

The skill of learning to bounce a ball at just the right speed and height takes talent. These skills are needed for additional bouncing ball games like tennis, ping pong and even volleyball. Start early with this Over the Line game. Two player bounce a ball to each other by laying down a Jump Rope or drawing a line with chalk. The challenge is to bounce the ball once on your side and then once on the other side.  The player who misses the bounced ball first loses.  

You can pretend it’s a snake, hot lava, or even a log across a river to add a little creativity to the game.

Sidewalk Targets 

Using Sidewalk Chalk,  create an obstacle course with your child for the ball to bounce on. It’s really practice in aim for throwing a ball but it makes such fun for your child’s imagination too. Create circles around the driveway and make believe to bounce from one to the other. They can be spaceships, lily pads, flowers.  

Encourage your child to create a scenario for the game.

Box Bowling

Recycle a large box to create a game called Box Bowling. Simply cut out a half circle large that the ball and then challenge your child to roll the ball into the opening. Player that gets the most balls inside the box wins!  

You can have your child decorate the box based on their interests from animals to rockets.
Click here for more box ideas for kids.

Bottle Bowling 

Recycle your juice, milk, or soda containers to create a bowling game for your ball. You can make it fancy by decorating the bottles or keep it simple. Surprisingly wrapping paper can be a great way to cover them easily. Click here to see how we decorated our recycled containers.

SHOP FOR BALLS ON AMAZON

Grab a Ball on Amazon for your child 

The Best Ball books for Kids
3 Math Activities with Balls
Play and learn with ball games for kids. Learning game variations for roll the ball.

Ball Themed Activities for Kids

We have a few more Ball Resources including 

  • Math Games with Balls
  • Roll the Ball Learning Game for Young Children
  • Best Ball Book for Kids to Read
  • 10 Ball Activities for Babies and Toddlers

What Types of Ball Games are your favorite? Share!

You’re invited to share what you’ve been doing with your kids at home. We’d love to hear from you! Come join the FUN!

Want more ideas for outdoor fun? Try our Ultimate list of Sidewalk Chalk Games for Kids! 

20 Pool Noodle Activities for Kids
Child holding sidewalk chalk to play learning activities
Drip, Drip, Drop - Outdoor Water Game for Kids

Like this idea? Pin for later or share now with a friend!

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Filed Under: Kids Games Tagged With: Balls, grade school, Movement, Outdoor Fun, Preschool

About Kim Vij

Early childhood teacher, author, speaker and mom of 3. Kim shares ways to make learning fun and parenting an adventure by sharing developmentally appropriate activities.

« Making Baklava with Kids
Baby Time: Let’s Make Music »

Comments

  1. Jennifer says

    May 18, 2019 at 1:32 am

    I’ll try this ball games on our next sport day…
    With huge thanks.

  2. Colleen says

    July 6, 2017 at 7:36 am

    Growing up I loved games like wall ball or red bud. They were so much fun on the playground. During the summer months, in our neighborhood we would play SPUD. Some of my fondest memories are from just ball games outside with my friends.

    • Joy M says

      February 22, 2019 at 1:26 pm

      I completely agree! for me it was Tug of War, Egg and Spoon race, Tag… I would love to get my kids some kid friendly supplies to play the games I grew up with.

  3. TM says

    January 17, 2017 at 12:16 am

    Great list of games! Just pinned to our spring activities board, cant wait to try them out!

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Early childhood teacher, author, speaker and mom of 3. Kim Vij shares ways to make learning fun and parenting an adventure by sharing all kinds of easy kid crafts, activities, recipes and even travel ideas for families!
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