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Games with rubber bands

Shooting staples using rubber bands
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Use small rubber bands which you can buy in the housewares stores. 10-20 rubber bands should be in every toy box to provide fun for a few quick games on a rainy afternoon or a gaming night at the youth group. Spanners for porters too can be found almost everywhere or are easily bought at the specific retailers.

Those rubber games require skill as well as a good sense of how much tension the rubber band can withstand without breaking.

Those are possible games you could play using rubber bands:

1. Shooting staples using rubber bands

   The staples are folded from small paper pieces. Using a rubber band, you are trying to meet your target. You can use corks or eggcups as your aim. Try to shoot them down from a wooden board.

2. Rubber Weight

   A rubber band is attached to a cup. The objective now is to put small objects (marbles, coins, nuts, etc.) into the cup without the rubber breaking. Every kid tries to put as many as possible objects into the container. Who can put in more than his opponent? Who dares, wins – who dares too much, loses much.

3. Rubber Spanner

   You will need a rubber band and a ruler. Now try to stretch the rubber band as far as possible without breaking it. If you pull too hard and the rubber band does break you get 0 points.

   Then the next kid tries without knowing the results of the previous child. Again, the kid must estimate how far he can stretch or alternatively, would he like to play it safe, hoping the child before him was even more cautious?

4. Rubber band from mouth to neck

   
   Rubber band from mouth to neck...
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   The rubber band is pulled over the head to below the nose (upper lip). Without touching the rubber band, the candidate tries to bring the rubber band from his upper lip to his lower lip and eventually down to his neck. He can do that only by grimacing. That can be quite funny to watch for the rest of the group.

5. Rubber ball on a rope

   For this game, you will need a ball on a rope. (Yoyo Ball). You can buy them quite cheaply in a toy shop or alternatively, with little skill you can make it yourself.

   Mark a start line and a distance of about 150cm. On this line, you put 5 cans in an approximate distance of 20cm. The objective now is to shoot the cans down from the board using your ball on the rope. Every candidate has 5 tries within 20 seconds.

6. Water carrier

   You will need a rod and two rubber straps. Attach the straps to each end of the rod and to the rod attach a plastic bucket with water. The objective now is to carry the buckets on your shoulders from A – B. The task is to spill as little as possible water on the way. How much water can be transported from A – B within a specified time? Or alternatively, how long does it take each team to fill the buckets with water.

7. Rubber catapult

   
   Rubber catapult
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   For this game, you need 2-4 rubber tension straps (for a bicycle porter). You need to stretch them between 2 posts (we used a tipped over beer table). You will need a ring or something similar to hold a ball, a stone, pine cones, etc. Next place your object in the ring and catapult it as far as possible. Alternatively, you could try to aim for a target.

8. Rubber Twist

   This skipping game has been known since time immemorial. It is especially popular among girls. Boys seem to be a not as adept. However, that is why it is a challenge. With the rubber twist, there are many different figures and possibilities on how to skip the rope.

   For this game, you use an elastic, similar to the one used in pants. This elastic gets stretched between the legs of two players. Their legs have to be apart to give the skippers room. Alternatively, the elastic can be stretched between 4 posts. One player now steps within the stretched elastic and starts to jump in and out the elastic on either side, with straddled or closed legs, turning and twisting and so on.

   Increasing levels of difficulty: stretch the rubber higher up or have two children jump at the same time and that with precise direction on how to jump.

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