National Water Balloon Day: color matching game

Did you know that once a year, on the first Friday of August, there’s a national holiday just for water balloons?? National Water Balloon Day is this Friday and we’re excited about it! Here’s a fun summertime game we came up with for you and your kids to celebrate on a warm August day!

This game is ideal for kids ages 2-5 (see bottom of post for how to adapt it for older kids)

Why we love it:

• Color matching
• Hand-eye coordination
• Physical, outdoor activity
• Learning through play
• Constructive throwing (think trajectory schema)

Setting up the game for water balloon day

All you need for this game is water balloons, sidewalk chalk, and a bit of prep time!

First, you need to see what colors of chalk you have and compare them to the colors of balloons you have. We only had red, orange, yellow, green, and blue chalk but the pack of water balloons I bought had more colors than that. So basically, only fill up the balloon colors that you have chalk to match. Does that make sense? So in my case, I filled red, orange, yellow, green, and blue balloons but set any other colors aside to use another time. I did about 4 of each color.

Then head outside and find a stretch of walkway, parking space, or somewhere you can easily spread out a bunch of large chalk circles. You don’t want them too close together. Make one large, fully filled-in, circle for each color you are doing. I put them in order of the rainbow but any order is fine. They don’t even have to be in a straight line.

5 circles along the walkway to our house was perfect for this. I made the circles about 12-15″ across with 8″ or so between them.

Now all you gotta do is get your kid(s) outside and show them how to play.

How to Play

Let your kid pick a balloon and ask them what color it is, then have them find the matching chalk circle and throw it onto the circle.

And that’s really it. Let them throw all the balloons till you run out! And make sure you shout out a “Happy National Water Balloon Day” every now and then!

Every time they throw a balloon it will wash the chalk circle away a little bit. It’s fun to watch all the colors muddy up and run like watercolors! And of course, Jane loved splashing in the chalky puddles! Haha, she had a thorough hosing off before going back in the house!

NOTE: There’s a small additional lesson you can teach here. Tell your kids that we care for nature and do not want to litter and have them help pick up all the bits of balloons when you’re done. Make it fun, being responsible for our surroundings should not feel like a chore.

For older kids

You can adapt this game for older kids by setting a standing line a few feet away from the circles to make aiming and throwing at the circles more of a challenge.

Happy Water Balloon Day

I hope you and your family enjoy this game, please let me know in the comments!

And be sure to check out my Instagram as well, we got a cute video of Jane playing this game!