Host a Summer Obstacle Course

Make your own Olympics on the lawn with a series of simple but fun outdoor activities.

What You Need

  • Basketball
  • Bat
  • Chalk
  • Drinks and snacks (maybe frozen treats?)
  • Duct tape
  • Golf Ball
  • Golf putter
  • Metal lids, one per person, for medals
  • Pebbles
  • Ping Pong Paddle and Ball
  • Plastic Cones
  • Plastic container
  • Ribbon – approximately 2 feet per person – for making medals
  • Soccer Ball
  • Softball
  • Table or raised deck
  • T-Ball Stand
  • Tennis ball
  • Water bottles, filled with water colored by food coloring

What You Do

  1. Create a circuit around the outdoor area with several stations
    At each station, place a piece of sporting equipment. Leave enough room between each station for safe play.
  2. Pick an action for each station, keeping in mind the age and abilities of your guests
    For example, kick soccer ball around a cone.
  3. Or how many times can you dribble a ball?
  4. Make a mini-golf hole from a recycled plastic container
    Cut out the side of a plastic container and now you can play mini-golf!
  5. How many times can you keep the ping pong ball in the air?
  6. How many pebbles can you toss into a chalk circle?
  7. How far can you hit a softball?
  8. How many bottles of water can you knock down with a tennis ball?
    See how cool it looks when you put food coloring in the water?
  9. When the obstacle course is done, hand out homemade medals
    Make medals by attached metal jar lids to ribbon with some duct tape.