Sprinkler Games for Kids: Water Fun for Hot Summer Days

Your kids will have hours of fun in their backyard with just a sprinkler playing these just for the sprinkler games. Make sure that you move the sprinkler every 20 minutes so your lawn gets watered while your children play.

A small group of children can play "Ring Around the Rosies" around the sprinkler. For extra fun, have one child man the sprinkler, randomly turning it on and off and the children circle around.

Get out the finger paints or bath paints and let your children paint each other. Cut shapes out of sponges so they can print patterns on their arms and legs. Don't forget to snap a couple of pictures before the "shower" off in the sprinkler.

Get out the sponges and buckets of sudsy water and let your kids have a "bike wash." Let them clean up their bikes, scooters, cars, wagons, and other outdoor toys before rinsing them off in the sprinkler.

For a game similar to musical chairs, let children dance around a sprinkler while another child mans the sprinkler (preferably out of sight of the other kids). When the sprinkler comes on, all the children must freeze and get drenched until the sprinkler comes back on.

Play jump rope in the cool mist of the sprinkler.

Give your child a pair of goggles for underwater and some plastic animals so they can go on a rain forest safari.

Set up the sprinkler at the bottom of their slide so they land in the cool rain of the sprinkler.

Set up a wet obstacle course that requires each child to jump over the sprinkler, crawl through the sprinkler, and run through the sprinkler

Spark their imaginations by giving each child an umbrella and a pair of rain boots and teach them "Singing in the Rain" or another rainy day song.

Double the watery fun by using water balloons to play "hot potato" in the sprinkler.

Play "Duck, Duck, Goose!" with the sprinkler in the center of the circle. The kids will want to get caught so they can sit right on the sprinkler.

Set up a slip and slide that passes through the sprinkler.

Play "Simon Says" in the sprinkler. Be sure to include sprinkler specific commands like "Simon says jump over the sprinkler" or "Simon says do a summersault in the water."

Sing "The Hokey Pokey" with the children putting their arms, legs, head, and whole self into the sprinkler.