Gymkhana: games, games and battle cries for children and adults

Having fun with friends, having a lot of laughs, teasing your opponent, spending your energy, all this without even feeling the time pass…. Want something better than a good gymkhana?

Although the term often refers to childhood and to some classic games, such as sack race, the gymkhana is actually nothing more than a set of fun games that encourage healthy competition. For this reason, it is extremely adaptable, being able to be made with few resources, in different types of environment and to entertain people of all ages.

As if all this versatility wasn’t enough to encourage you to prepare a competition, it still brings a lot of benefits, stimulating cooperation, team spirit, motor coordination, strategy, socialization and children’s creativity, as well as how it gives adults a good reason to get together and put the smartphone and social media aside.

Need help on the job? Below you will find some ideas for games and games to include in your gymkhana with children or adults!

10 games and games for scavenger hunts with kids

Good option for birthday parties, the children’s gymkhana can be done in the ballroom, in the condominium, in the backyard and even inside the house. To do this, just choose appropriate games for each type of environment and number of people. If possible, it is also always good to take a look at the profile of the children who are going to participate. Do they like to run or do they prefer guesswork? Do you prefer to do things as a team or do you prefer to score individually for the team?

Defining these questions helps to ensure the success of the competition, remembering that, most of the time, the cool thing is to mix different types of activities in order to keep children always interested. See some ideas below:

1. Chair dance

Classic child’s play, the chair dance only needs chairs arranged in a circle, and the number of seats must always be less than the number of participants. To the sound of music, players must dance around the chairs until it stops. When that happens, everyone should try to sit down. Whoever fails to do so, leaves the game taking a chair with them. The one who manages to sit in the last chair wins.

Indicated for children from four years old and for groups with more than five people, the game stimulates agility, attention, movement, strategy and rhythm.

2. Bag race

More than competing to cross the finish line first, the fun of the sack race is the fact that the participants’ legs are trapped at all times, which results in very clumsy movements. In addition to bags of potatoes or pillowcases to put on your legs, it is essential to do the activity on a safe surface, without rocks or objects that hurt.

Due to the coordination required, the game is more suitable for children from the age of seven and encourages agility, balance and speed. As a tip, if the number of participants is even, it is possible to run a relay-style race, also encouraging cooperation.

3. Tug of war

In a wide, safe space, stretch the rope, marking the middle both on the rope, with tape, and on the floor (chalk line). Divide the participants into two teams, paying attention to balance strength and number of people. With players split and lined up on their side of the rope, they must pull until at least one of the other team’s participants crosses the center line. Whoever does this first is the winning team.

Another classic of the competitions, the tug of war requires at least four participants and is ideal for stimulating motor coordination, cooperation, strength, endurance, agility and socialization. It is recommended for children from the age of seven.

4. Rabbit comes out of the hole

Good for children from the age of four, the rabbit comes out of the hole works like this: divide participants into trios, except for one child who will be the first hunter. In groups, two children must hold hands around the third participant, forming a den. When the hunter says “Bunny comes out of the den”, all the rabbits must go out and look for a new den, with the first one that the hunter catches becomes the new hunter. The hunter becomes one of the burrows and it becomes a new rabbit.

Play encourages physical conditioning and agility.

5. Shoe race

More of a challenge than a race itself, the shoe race consists of separating children into two or more teams, asking them to leave their shoes in a corner. The more spread out the shoes are, the better. At the “go” signal, everyone must run to look for their shoes and put them on. The team that finishes first wins.

Indicated for children over seven years old, the game encourages agility, strategy and cooperation, as one team member can help the other.

6. Catch tail

With participants divided into two or more teams, distribute a colored cloth or ribbon to each person, remembering that it must be a color for each team. With the ribbon hanging from the back of the pants (in the waistband or in the pocket), everyone must run after each other in order to collect as many cloths from other teams as possible. The team that, at the end of the given time, has collected the most tapes from the opponents wins.

Despite the extra work of getting pieces of cloth or ribbon of different colors, the game is worth it because it’s fun and uses a lot of energy. In addition, it stimulates agility, cooperation, physical conditioning and speed. It is recommended for children over six years old and requires at least eight participants.

7. Giant Joquempo

A game in which children must interact a lot, the Giant Joquempô has the same dynamics as the normal joquempô, with the difference that, in it, decisions are made as a team. Divided into three groups, participants must face their opponents, forming a triangle. With each new round, teams talk to each other to choose between hunter, lion or shotgun. At the signal from the monitor, the teams simultaneously reveal what they have chosen through predetermined gestures that represent each symbol. Oh, and the rule is clear: lion beats the hunter, who beats the shotgun, who beats the lion.

Good for groups of more than six people and over seven years of age, Joquempô Gigante mainly encourages cooperation and strategy.

8. Treasure Hunt

One of the coolest things about the treasure hunt is that, depending on the degree of difficulty and the number of clues, it can last the entire party, with continuation between other games. The treasure hunt is quite famous, but it doesn’t hurt to remember how it works. After preparing and hiding two sets of clues with different colors and contents in a pre-determined area, divide the participants into two groups and give each one their initial clue. From there, each group must unravel the clues received to find the next ones until reaching the treasure.

Regarding the content of the clues, the cool thing is that they stimulate reasoning and teamwork, bringing riddles, crossword puzzles, word searches, anagrams, etc. Remembering that the tracks must be adapted to the age of the group. After all, the goal is for them to actually find the treasure, which can be candies, chocolates or something that has to do with the party.

9. Customs

With the children divided into two or more teams, one member of each group leaves the room or the place where the others are. Together, the representatives of each team must establish a rule for customs, for example: “only pass electronic products”.

Then they return to the room, and from there, each team must ask questions, such as “does the dog pass?”, in order to discover the rule. The team that discovers it before the others wins.

As it requires memory and reasoning, the game is more successful among those over seven years of age and stimulates, in addition to the items mentioned, imagination and patience.

10. Serpent

The game looks like a catch. Once the catcher is chosen, he runs after the other children, who try to run away from him. The difference here is that when he touches someone, the person gives him a hand and also starts chasing the other participants, doing this with everyone who is caught until he forms a huge snake and no one is left.

Despite not dividing the participants into teams, the game is great for stimulating socialization, since the bigger the snake, the more difficult it is to reach the pursued, and it is necessary to devise strategies to do this.

An important thing to pay attention to in the children’s competition is that the division of teams must always be balanced, especially when there are children of different ages. That way, everyone has a chance to win and doesn’t lose interest.

5 games and games for scavenger hunts with adults

Although adults are already with motor coordination up to date, stimulating creativity, imagination and socialization, meeting with friends, never hurts! Check out our suggestions to have fun and get out of the way at your next meeting with the crowd.

1. Pie in the face

The game that became famous in the evening shows can be played at home and is even more fun with adults, as there are some whites that lead to the tarts. To make the pies, you’ll need plastic or cardboard plates (the ones sold at party supply stores) and an edible cream that doesn’t irritate the eyes, such as homemade whipped cream. In addition, you will also need a list of questions that can range from geography to sexuality. On the internet you can find lists of ready-made questions. Another nice tip is to use the game’s question cards as a Profile, in case he’s having soup at home.

Once that’s done, you already know the dynamics: with participants divided into two or more teams, someone reads the question to two players. Whoever answers wrong or last gets pie in the face, while the other participant adds points for his team.

2. Dark Stories

Increasingly popular, the game, which needs the cards in physical version or in the app, works as follows: a person reads the letter that reports a macabre and apparently inexplicable event for everyone, for example, “a woman enters a bar and asks for a glass of water. The man at the counter points a gun at her. She says ‘thank you’ and leaves.”

Then the participants must ask questions of the person who read the letter and knows the resolution of the case in order to unravel what happened. Remembering that questions can only be answered with yes or no, for example: “did she leave the bar out of fear?”

The cool thing about the game is that the question of one ends up complementing that of the other and the resolution of the case ends up being done in a group, but it is possible to adapt Dark Stories for team disputes, scoring the team that arrives first to the answer. The app you can download here (Android and iOS).

3. Like, don’t like

This is to get to know the crowd better while having fun! On paper, everyone should write a…