I love summertime!  And I love activities that get my kids outside and active.   These activities are perfect for little boys!  Not only can they use up some of their endless energy but you don’ t have to worry about them getting hurt because they are using pool noodles.  When I found pool noodles for sale at the dollar store I was so excited to create some fun games and activities for my kids.  I think the lady that helped me out must have thought I was crazy as she watched me shoving pool noodles into every square inch of my car.  But we fit and I made it home safe.

1- Giant Ring Toss

Items needed:

• 6 or more 3/4″ wooden dowels.  We used 4 ft long but you could use shorter depending on how tall you want your game to be
• 6 or more pool noodles

(Make sure the diameter of the noodle hole is the same diameter of the dowels that you buy.  Some of our noodles had a 1″ diameter and those won’t work for making the rings unless you buy 1″ dowels)

Use a hammer to pound the dowels into the ground.

Position one noodle onto each dowel until completely covered.

 Cut a dowel into 6″ segments.  One for each ring you are making.

Insert one of the cut dowels into a noodle to make a ring.

Secure with duct tape.

Assign different points to different targets.

2-Pool Noodle Target Station

Items needed:

• At least 9 pool noodles
• Three 4 ft long, 3/4″ wooden dowels

Make 6 rings as described above in the Giant Ring Toss game.

Use duct tape to tape 6 rings together.  3 on top, 3 on bottom.  Then tape the rings to two hollow pool noodle posts.

Use a hammer to pound two 3/4″ dowels into the ground (ours were 48″ long) and slide the target station onto the posts.

Then throw hollow pool noodles at the target.  You can assign different point values to different rings. (My boys would have played with this all night long if we didn’t make them come in for bed.  They loved it!)

(Idea for target station adapted fromFamily Fun Magazine)

3- Pool Noodle Croquet

 Items needed:

• 6-8 pool noodles
• 4-5 3/4″ dowels cut to 12″ in length
• Beach balls

Use a hammer to pound two dowels into the ground, approx 30″ apart for each wicket you are making.  (Can be further apart depending on how tall you want the wicket.)  Slide pool noodle onto dowels to make an arch.

 Use  hollow pool noodles (Or you could slide the noodle onto a dowel to make it stiff.  Just make sure the dowel and noodle are the same diameter) and beach balls to play croquet.

Or you can just climb under them which is just as fun in my opinion!

4-Water Balloon Baseball

Insert a dowell into a hollow noodle for the bat. Make sure they fit snug so the dowell doesn’t fall out.  Fill water balloons for the baseballs (filling them about 1/2 way full makes it so they can be hit and not pop as easily).

Most of the time they will pop but it’s a fun way to cool off when it’s hot!

5- Giant Tic-Tac-Toe

 Use 4 pool noodles to make a tic-tac-toe game.  Have one kid stand on each side and toss colored bean bags (do those look familiar?) to try and get tic-tac-toe.  Get 3 in a row and you win!
This reminded me of the Toss Across game my grandma had when we were little.

And one of the best things about these games is that if it gets too hot, like it does here, you can always turn on the sprinklers while you play and cool off!