[For Kids] Exciting Class-vs-Class Games: Team Competition Activities
Looking for team-based games that will get everyone excited indoors with your friends? We’ve gathered a variety of cooperative indoor games—like creative twists on the classic charades, flipping races, and telephone—that teams can enjoy together! With simple rules that let you start right away, these games are sure to bring out smiles all around.
Indoor games that deepen team bonds while letting each person’s individuality shine.
Let’s sync up and have fun together!
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Indoor team-based activities (1–10)
Illustration Gesture Game
This activity suggests playing the classic gesture game—this time with drawings.
Divide into several teams, and within each team split roles into a drawer and a guesser.
Each team takes turns drawing the prompt given, and the team members try to guess the answer.
The team that guesses the most within the time limit wins.
The key to victory is how quickly you can draw something that captures the main features.
Choosing prompts that everyone knows and that have clear, distinctive traits will make it fun for kids.
It’s also a good idea to have about four people per team so the drawer and guesser can switch if things aren’t going well.
Team Battle Treasure Hunt
Let’s play by giving each other riddles! Here’s a team-based treasure hunt battle.
It’s an idea that sparks cooperation and creativity! Split into a team that creates riddles and a team that solves them to find the next clue, all aiming for the treasure.
Playing this game not only boosts problem-solving and reasoning skills, but also teaches the importance of teamwork and communication.
The real charm lies in getting absorbed in solving puzzles with your teammates and feeling a sense of accomplishment.
Try it out in a spacious, versatile location.
PET bottle darts
This is a game where you drop a pair of disposable chopsticks into a plastic bottle placed on the floor while standing.
Divide players into several teams of about 3–5 people.
At the start signal, team members take turns aiming at the bottle and dropping the chopsticks.
The team that gets the chopsticks into the bottle first wins.
It counts no matter which team member succeeds.
Be careful: leaning forward too much or getting too close to the bottle is a foul.
Depending on the children’s ages, one successful drop might end the game too quickly.
Adjust the win condition to suit their age, such as “the first team to get three chopsticks in wins.”
Indoor Team Competitions (11–20)
Drawing on the Back! Telephone Game
It’s a game that combines drawing to convey something with the classic telephone game: the Back Drawing Telephone Game.
You stick a piece of paper on someone’s back and draw on it to pass along a message; the person being drawn on interprets what they felt and then draws on the next person’s back, and so on.
Whether you’re good at drawing or not, sensing the picture is surprisingly tricky, which makes the game exciting.
We recommend starting with simple drawings.
After the last person finishes, have each player announce what they drew one by one, then look at the drawings made on everyone’s back to check the answers.
Team Competition Bingo
How about turning the classic bingo game into a team match? It’s still bingo if the numbers in a row on your card line up vertically, horizontally, or diagonally—but it’s not a win just because you personally get bingo.
For example, by setting a rule like “the round ends when three people at the table get bingo,” you eliminate the “it’s over as soon as I get bingo” scenario and keep the suspense and excitement going until the very end.
Whether you snag a lavish prize is up to luck! Let’s all cheer together for every number that’s called.
Trump & Card Game
Here are some card games using playing cards or karuta.
Normally, you play with playing cards or karuta in a small space on a table or on the floor.
The games introduced here use a cleared, larger area—put away tables and chairs and give it a try.
If you’re using playing cards, lay out all the cards as you would for Concentration (Memory).
If you’re using karuta, spread out the picture cards around the room.
Because the games take place in a large space, children will walk around to look for the cards.
A card game with a wide range of movement is sure to get kids excited.
Team play is also recommended.
You’ll likely hear teammates calling out things like, “There’s one over there!”
Puzzle Escape Game
Puzzle-solving games may not be everyone’s strong suit, but many people enjoy them, don’t you think? You often see them at events and on TV, and just mulling them over feels like brain training and is fun.
With such popular puzzle games, doing a “puzzle-solving escape game” where everyone cooperates to solve riddles and escape seems like a surefire way to boost teamwork, right? And problems that one person can’t figure out might surprisingly be solved smoothly when you join forces.
Let’s compete to see which team can escape the fastest!