Giant backyard games are a great time to spend time with family and friends! You can’t go wrong with any of these amazing options!
Game time is fun, but for bigger fun, you need bigger games. You may have seen those giant outdoor games made from ordinary board games. These are perfect for the kids to play with all summer or for pulling out for a summer party. But buying them can cost hundreds. Fortunately, you can make these jumbo games yourself without breaking your budget.
You may have some of the supplies for these games lurking in the corner of your garage or basement, which will make creating them even cheaper. But if not, most can be found at your local hardware or craft supply store, the latter of which often has 40% to 50% off coupons on their apps or newspaper fliers.
Twister
This one is super easy. Get some spray paint in red, green, blue and yellow. Use a pan, paint can or other round object to use as a template, then trace it on cardboard and cut it out. Use the remaining cardboard as a stencil and spray a row of six circles in each color on the grass.
You may have to spray the circles a few times to make it the color bright enough. You can also change up the traditional colors and create a Twister game based on a wedding theme or a favorite sports team. Don’t worry, this won’t be permanent. The grass will grow and you’ll mow it off eventually.
- WHO’S GOT THE MOVES: Classic Twister gameplay challenges players to place their hands and feet on red
- GIVE THE SPINNER A WHIRL: See where it lands and make a move. Right foot red, off to a good start. Left foot green, you’ve got this. Left hand blue … wait, is that physically possible. Give it a shot
- INDOOR ACTIVITY FOR KIDS: Stuck inside. The Classic Twister game is an action-packed way for kids, tweens, and teens to "get their energy out." (Parents, rejoice)
You can use an original game spinner if you have one, or if not simply write the color names on slips of paper or card stock. Put the slips into hats: One hat will have four slips of paper (red, blue, green, yellow). The second hat will have four slips of paper (right foot, right hand, left foot, left hand). For each turn, the player will draw a slip from each hat.
Tic Tac Toe
Use duct tape to tape a large tic tac toe board directly onto the lawn, or use a large flat sheet and tape your board onto the sheet. If using a sheet, put a small rock onto each corner to prevent it from blowing around.
For your X’s and O’s, use 10 Frisbees in two colors (five of each); if you want, use a thick marker to draw large X’s on five and large O’s on five. You could also use 10 bean bags in two different colors as well.
Pick Up Sticks
Check out the instructions here. You can stick with traditional yellow, green, blue and red colors or choose your own combination — just be sure to make one black one. If you have forgotten how to play, check out these simple rules.
Checkers
For your board, get a large blanket or flat sheet and spray paint your squares. Ideally, half will be white and half will be black, but it’s your game, so do whatever colors you like!
For your checkers, you can use plastic plates (either inexpensive ones from the dollar store or heavy-duty disposable ones) or Frisbees. If you can’t find them in the colors you want, spray paint works great.
Kerplunk
Head to the garden center to create this fun game. I found two versions you can make, depending on how handy you are and what items you may already have on hand. The first uses tomato cages and the second uses chicken wire.
Connect Four
We’ve all played this game for hours with our kids, right? Now you can make a giant version to play outside. The kids will love playing with the oversized discs. The project requires some skill with tools.
You could use scrap two-by-fours for the stand. Search for scrap plywood to use for the discs; just make sure they are all the required width so they rest on top of each other.
Bananagrams
Sneak in some summer learning with this educational game. Get started with these detailed instructions, which even tell you how many squares of each letter you need. These instructions use masonite, which is fine, but you could also use four four-by-eight sheets of luan plywood, which cost about $14 each.
You could also use cardboard or check out any of your local online yardsale sites for folks giving away old floor tiles, which would work great. Just don’t get tiles that are too large — the game could get quite heavy.
- FUN FOR EVERYONE – Gather your family and friends and race against each other to build crossword grids. This anagram game that will drive you bananas.
- ENTERTAINING AND EDUCATIONAL – While this game is easy to play, Bananagrams is also educational. Teach your kids how to spell words and have fun at the same time.
- GREAT FOR TRAVEL – Bananagrams comes in a fun banana-shaped case. This game doesn’t take much space like other board games and brings tons of fun while traveling.
Jenga
Who doesn’t like the challenge of Jenga? These instructions make creating a giant version a snap. To save some cash and time, you can skip the painting, but it does make it look nice.
Dominoes
Whether you want to play a game or set them in a row and knock them down, this oversize set will work. This DIY tutorial calls for a variety of paint colors, but you can save by buying just one color or even sticking to simple black acrylic paint for the dots.
Plinko
Kids of any age can play this game, and it isn’t difficult to put together. Raid the scrap pile for materials. The landing spots are numbered, and each player adds up his or her score. The object is to have your discs add up as close to 21 as possible. Players alternate turns, and the first one to hit 21 wins.
I think these games can offer endless summer fun. Do you have any favorite games that could be jumbo-sized?
How do I make games less competitive?
It can be hard to not get overly competitive when it comes to games. As long as you tell yourself that it’s a friendly-competition, that can be a good reminder to slow down and not worry about winning so much.
After all, it’s all about having a good time with family and friends!
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I’ve been looking for projects to do with my 4 year old son and he !oves playing Jenga.