Teams herd animals (colored balloons) from the middle of the game area back to their team. The first team to get all of their balloons back to their team wins.
Equipment
- Balloons
Setup
Blow up five balloons of each team color. You can use 12″ balloons, but do not inflate them fully. This allows for the balloons to not be as fragile.
Be sure that you have extra balloons blown up because there will be some that pop. You can store the extra balloons in large trash bags.
How to play Animal Balloon Herding
The idea of the game is to try and herd the animals (your balloon color) back to your team. There will be balloons at one end of the game area. Line up the color teams behind their cones. If you have more than four teams, then you can have the teams line up on each end of the game area. For example, six teams would allow for three teams at each end.
When the game starts, the first person runs to the balloons and herds one of their colors back to their team using their hands to hit the balloon back to their team. For younger kids, you can have them grab a balloon and run back to their team. The game continues until all of the balloons of their color have been brought back to their team.
Looking to make this more challenging for older kids? Give the first person in each line a pool noodle. Have each person herd a balloon back to their team with only the pool noodle. The pool noodle is handed to the next person, and they go and herd another one of their color balloons.