Water Safety Games

Water safety is important for everyone, adults and children alike. However, it is often a bit more difficult to get children to understand the importance of being safe while in or on the water. For this reason, playing water safety games with children is a good way to help them remember the rules.

• Kids enjoy contests and competing against one another for prizes; you can use that to your advantage. Pick up some inexpensive prizes or candy to hand out to the winners of your contests. Provide children with safety gear, and see who can correctly put theirs on the fastest.


• Ask a series of water safety questions. See who can answer the most questions correctly.


• Type and print a water safety quiz. Have questions such as what the child would do in certain situations. Also include questions on safe and unsafe behavior in and around the pool.


• Choose some children to be the ones having trouble and others to be the ones doing the saving. Give the children doing the saving a throw line. Once everyone has been pulled safely out, reverse positions so the other children learn how to use the throw line.


• Print out a series of photos that show appropriate and inappropriate water behavior, have the children determine which things are okay to do and which are not. Go over the results once the children are finished. You may be surprised to find that kids think some very dangerous behaviors are fine.


• Let the children write their own stories about safety around the water. Once they are done, read them out loud or have the children read them out loud.