45 Trampoline Games your Kids will Love
I’m a fan of having lots of activities for kids at home to keep kids happy and busy. We’ve compiled a list of 45 fun trampoline games for kids that will have your kids begging to spend more time outside on their trampoline.
While I love keeping kids occupied inside, now the weather is finally turning beautiful and kids can head outside to expend all their extra energy.
My children often spend hours outside on their trampoline on these beautiful days.
If your kids have made it through all these games, or if they prefer less competitive trampoline activities you’ll love these 19 fun trampoline activities for kids!
You kids are going to love trying these fun games to play on the trampoline!
If you are still trying to keep your kids busy outside after they play several of these trampoline games, this post of 50+ backyard activities for kids might help.
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45 Trampoline Games for Kids
Gaga Ball
This game is the trampoline favorite at our house. Players try to get each other out by hitting a volleyball or kickball at each other.
A player is out if he is hit with the ball below the knees, if he hits the ball outside of the trampoline, or if he hits someone else with the ball above the shoulders.
When someone hits the ball, that person cannot touch the ball again until either another person touches the ball or the ball hits the side of the trampoline.
The last person left standing is the winner.
Popcorn
Popcorn (or Crack the Egg) has been a trampoline favorite for years.
One child is the popcorn and curls up on the trampoline mat, holding his knees to his chest.
The other children try to “pop the popcorn” by bouncing either on their knees or carefully on their feet.
When the popcorn “pops” by letting go of his knees, the popcorn trades places with one of the other players.
1-2-3 Sit!
Everyone jumps on the trampoline until someone calls out, “1–2–3, sit!” upon which everyone lands in a seated position at the same time.
If timed correctly, this will cause some people to fly high into the air.
The anticipation of being the one who is bounced up high leads children to play this game over and over.
For safety reasons, this game is best played on a trampoline with a net.
Poison
This is one of the most entertaining trampoline games of all time. Several balls are placed on the trampoline, and everyone has to jump or run around the trampoline without letting the “poisonous” balls touch them.
If a ball touches someone, that person is out and has to sit down on the edge of the trampoline.
The last person jumping is the winner.
To make this game less competitive, when someone is poisoned they can be “revived” and rejoin the game if someone who is still alive tags them.
Bull and Matador
When it’s not Gaga Ball, the game most likely being played on our trampoline is Bull and Matador.
One person is the bull and the other children are the matadors.
The bull charges around on hands and knees, trying to tag one of the matadors.
The matadors have to avoid being tagged, but they cannot jump over the bull. Each time the matadors successfully avoid the bull’s charge, they shout, “Olay!”
When one of the matadors is tagged, that player becomes the new bull.
Telephone
This trampoline game is always a hit, especially when friends are over and kids want to show-off their best tricks.
One person performs a trick and then climbs off the trampoline. The next person climbs on the trampoline and has to copy the trick and then perform one of their own.
Everyone continues to take turns on the trampoline repeating the sequence of tricks in order and then adding one of their own.
When someone cannot remember a trick or does the sequence out of order that person is out.
The game continues until only one person is left as the winner.
Bouncing Air Catch
In this game, one player bounces in the middle of the trampoline while another player stands on the ground and throws a ball high over the trampoline.
The player on the trampoline tries to jump and catch the ball while in mid-air.
Each ball that is caught while the jumper is in mid-air is worth one point.
After ten balls are thrown, the two players trade places.
Whoever gets the most points out of ten balls is the winner.
Rock Paper Scissors
Everyone loves the original Rock Paper Scissors, and the trampoline version might be even better.
The game starts with all the players chanting “Rock, paper, scissors, shoot.”
On “shoot,” each person lands either curled up for a rock, stretched out for paper, or in a sitting position for scissors.
Rock beats scissors, scissors beats paper, and paper beats rock.
Reverse Limbo
This twist on the party game Limbo is always fun on the trampoline.
Two children hold a pool noodle or a rope between them while the other players take turns jumping over it.
Each person who successfully jumps over the pool noodle or rope without touching it advances to the next level, with the pool noodle or rope a little higher.
Volleyball
Two people or two teams jump on opposite sides of the trampoline while bopping a ball back and forth.
They cannot double-touch the ball or let it touch the ground, and they cannot stop jumping.
Keeping a ball in the air while constantly jumping is more challenging than it sounds, and your kids will be hooked as they try to beat their high score.
Indian Chief
This game is the perfect choice for playdates. It can be played with as few as four people, but the more kids playing the better the game.
One person sits in the middle of the trampoline with eyes closed as the detective.
The other players secretly decide who will be the Indian Chief.
Once the Indian Chief is chosen, the detective opens his eyes and everyone else begins bouncing on the edges of the trampoline.
The Indian Chief must begin a pattern, like hopping from foot to foot, and everyone else copies him.
The Indian Chief should frequently change the pattern and everyone else has to quickly follow along.
They must be careful not to give away who they are copying because the detective is trying to guess which person is the Indian Chief.
Once the detective guesses who the Indian Chief is, the Indian Chief becomes the new detective.
Basketball
Put your basketball hoop beside the trampoline and watch your kids have a blast shooting goals and slam-dunking to their heart’s content.
Make up a variety of challenges, like first to get ten goals or first to make three goals while in the air.
An empty cardboard box or plastic bin placed on the ground near the trampoline is a fun and more challenging alternative to a basketball goal.
Dead Man
To play this popular trampoline game, one person is blindfolded as the deadman who “comes alive” by rolling around the trampoline trying to tag the other players.
The alive players cannot let the dead man touch them or else they will be out. The last person to avoid the dead man’s touch is the winner and gets to be the deadman for the next round.
The Color and Shapes Game
This game can be played with a wide age range of kids, making it perfect for siblings to play together on the trampoline.
Start by using chalk to draw shapes in different colors scattered around the trampoline.
Then one child is the referee who sits on the edge of the trampoline and calls out instructions to the other children one at a time.
These instructions can be simple or complex depending on the age of the child: jump on a red shape, do a front flip on the green triangle, bounce to a circle and do a seat-drop, etc.
Snake
With this game, all you need is a jumprope for instant fun on the trampoline.
Two children sitting on opposite sides of the trampoline hold a jumprope between them and wave it side to side on the trampoline mat like a snake.
The other children are the fearless adventurers who have to jump back and forth over the snake without touching it.
The children who are holding the rope should start by waving it just a little and very slowly.
Then they can wave it harder and faster as the game continues.
Alternatively, they can wave the skipping rope up and down as fire for the adventurers to jump over.
Bum Wars
This is a classic trampoline game that never fails to entertain kids.
All the players bounce on the trampoline.
Someone calls out “One, two, three, four. I declare a bum war!” and all the players must land in a seated position and then immediately bounce back to their feet.
If anyone bounces on their feet or on their bums more than once, that person is out.
As a variation, children can add additional moves like “One, two, three. I declare a knee war,” upon which everyone lands on their knees before bouncing back to their feet.
Tramp
To play Tramp, one player does a trick and the other players take turns trying to copy him.
If anyone cannot do the trick, that player receives the first letter in the word “tramp.”
The game continues with the next person performing a trick and the other players taking turns copying that trick.
Whenever someone cannot perform a trick, that player receives the next letter in the word “tramp.”
Once someone has every letter in the word “tramp,” that player is out.
The word can also be shorter (like “dog” or “pig”) for a quicker game.
Tag
This simple game goes to the next level of fun when played on a trampoline.
The rules are the same: one person is “it” and tries to tag someone else.
When someone is tagged, that person is the new tagger.
Other versions of tag are also fun on the trampoline, like freeze tag or zombie tag.
In freeze tag, when someone is tagged they must freeze in place and can only be unfrozen if someone other than the tagger touches them.
The tagger’s goal is to get everyone frozen. In zombie tag, when the zombie tags someone, that person joins the zombie’s team and helps the zombie tag the other players.
The last person not tagged is the winner and the new zombie.
King of the Castle
If your kids like dodgeball, they will love this imaginative trampoline dodgeball game.
Players split into two teams, with one teammate as a king and the other teammate as an attacker.
The king from each team jumps around in the trampoline (which is the castle), while the attackers stand on the outside of the castle with soft balls.
The attackers try to throw their balls into the castle and hit the other team’s king.
When a king is hit by a ball, he is out and the other jumper is King of the Castle. If you have enough children playing, each team can also have a knight
The knights jump around inside the castle and protect their team’s king from the balls thrown by the opposite team’s attacker.
Ring Around the Rosy
This sing-along game is tons of fun on the trampoline, especially for younger children.
Children hold hands and spin in a circle singing the chant, “Ring around the rosy/A pocket full of posies/Ashes, ashes/We all fall down.”
At, “We all fall down,” the children all fall down on the trampoline.
They can take turns determining how everyone should fall down, for example everyone can fall flat on their backs, land in a seated position, or fall to their knees.
Bounce to the Beat
Kids love to dance and they love to jump, so combine both for an awesome trampoline game.
Turn on your kids’ favorite music outside of the trampoline.
They have to try and jump to the beat of the song while showing-off their best trampoline dance moves.
When the song changes, the kids have to jump to the new beat.
If you want to make this competitive, the last person to match their rhythm to the new song is out for the rest of the song.
Stealthy Ninja
Any game that involves ninjas is an instant hit, and this game is no exception.
One person is the stealthy ninja in the middle of the trampoline, and everyone else is blindfolded.
While the blindfolded players run around the trampoline, the ninja tries to knock everyone over.
The ninja can jump near the other players, try to make them laugh, or do anything to knock them over except kick, punch, or otherwise injure them.
If the ninja succeeds in getting everyone down, the last person who was left standing is the new ninja.
Cherry Bomb
Like Poison, this is another trampoline favorite.
In this game, everyone stands on the trampoline while one child holds a ball.
The child holding the ball throws it high into the air and shouts, “Cherry bomb!” or “Bombs away!”
Everyone has to avoid being hit by the ball without getting off the trampoline.
Each time someone is hit by the ball, that person loses one of five lives.
Everyone also loses a life if the ball is thrown outside of the trampoline.
As a variation, every child can have a cherry bomb which increases the difficulty and the fun.
This game is especially awesome when played with water balloons in the summer.
Just watch out because the trampoline gets slippery when it’s wet.
Twister
Twister is even more fun and challenging on a trampoline.
You can use painters tape to tape the mat from the original Twister on the trampoline, or you can use chalk to draw four rows of different colored circles on the trampoline mat.
You can use the spinner from the Twister game or call out your own instructions (“Right hand, red”).
The goal is to follow the instructions without falling over, which is a fun challenge on the bouncy trampoline.
Wild Boar
In this enhanced game of tag, one child is designated as the Wild Boar and is blindfolded.
The Wild Boar runs around the trampoline trying to catch one of the other children. When the Wild Boar catches someone, the Wild Boar has to guess who they caught.
If the Wild Boar guesses correctly, the person who was caught becomes the new Wild Boar.
If the guess is wrong, the Wild Boar must try to catch someone else.
Corn
This game is a different version of Wild Boar.
One child is the corn and sits in the middle of the trampoline.
The other children get off the trampoline and secretly choose a name for each of them, plus one extra name that doesn’t belong to anybody.
Then, they get back on the trampoline and tell the corn the chosen names (including the extra name) without revealing who each name belongs to.
The corn is blindfolded, and a game of tag begins.
As the children are running away, they have to use the secret names for each player instead of their real names.
When the corn catches someone, he has to guess the secret name of the person who was caught.
If the guess is correct, the corn and the caught person trade places and a new game begins.
If the guess is wrong, the corn has two more tries to catch someone and guess his secret name.
Bubble Pop
Blow some bubbles or set up a bubble machine for some bubble-popping trampoline fun.
Challenge your kids to keep the bubbles from escaping the trampoline or to see how many bubbles they can pop while in mid-air.
The bubbles will make the trampoline mat a little slippery, so give the trampoline a quick hose down after playing this.
Falling Apples
In this game, two players are in the middle of the trampoline with a cardboard box or other item they can use to catch balls.
The rest of the players sit on the edges of the trampoline and throw balls high into the air.
The catchers try to catch as many of the balls in their boxes as they can while jumping around.
The throwers can grab any balls the catchers missed and throw them again.
Once all the balls have been caught, whoever has the most in their box wins.
Dodgeball
Dodgeball has long been a favorite for kids at the park, in the gym, and at camp.
So it’s no wonder this game is such a hit on the trampoline!
Two players jump on the trampoline and try to avoid the soft balls being thrown at them from the rest of the players who are outside of the trampoline.
When a player on the ground hits a jumper below the waist, that player receives one point and trades places with the person who was hit.
To keep the game relatively safe, if someone is hit above the shoulders, the person who threw the ball loses a point.
The first person to get ten points wins the game.
Little Sally Walker
This sing-along/trick game is perfect for the trampoline.
One child is Little Sally Walker (or Little Willy Walker for a boy) and jogs around the trampoline, while the other children stand on the edges singing this song: “Little Sally Walker, walking down the street/She didn’t know what to do, so she stopped in front of me/She said, “Hey girl, do your thing, do your thing and switch!/Hey girl do your thing, do your thing and switch!””
When they get to “Hey girl, do your thing” the child who is Little Sally Walker stops in the middle of the trampoline, points to one of the other children, and does a trick.
As the children sing the second line of “Hey girl, do your thing, do your thing and switch!” The child who was pointed at switches places with Little Sally Walker and copies the trick.
Then that child is the new Little Sally Walker and the game continues.
Hopscotch
Use chalk or painters tape to mark hopscotch squares on the trampoline mat, and let the fun begin!
Play normal hopscotch, or challenge your kids to do a special jump each time they hop to a new square, like a tuck jump (where they tuck their knees to their chest in mid-air) or a star jump (where they jump and spread their arms and legs out wide).
Hoppy Ball Race
This trampoline version of a potato sack race will have your kids laughing in no time.
Two kids race across or around the trampoline by hopping on hoppy balls.
You can even use chalk to draw start and finish lines or a racing track around the edge of the trampoline.
Check-out these awesome trampoline hoppy balls which will add an extra bounce to your kids’ trampoline fun.
Monkey in the Middle
Monkey in the Middle has never been more fun than when it’s played on a trampoline.
Two children stand on either side of the trampoline while another child stands in the middle as the monkey.
The two children throw the ball back and forth over the monkey in the middle, and the monkey tries to jump and catch it.
If the monkey catches the ball, whoever was last to touch it swaps places with the monkey in the middle.
To make this game even more challenging, the two children who are throwing the ball can stand on the ground and toss the ball over top of the trampoline, while the monkey in the middle bounces on the trampoline and tries to catch the ball.
Sword Fight
Children love sword fights, and pool noodle sword fights on the trampoline are the best.
It’s super easy to make light sabers out of pool noodles, which make for some epic Jedi battles on the trampoline.
Simply cut a pool noodle in thirds and wrap the ends with silver duct tape for the light saber’s handle.
Then use rectangular pieces of black duct tape or electrical tape for the buttons.
Bounce Battle
This battle of stamina is a great way for kids to burn some energy.
All the players stand on the trampoline and begin jumping.
When someone shouts, “Go!” the battle begins, and the players must land in a seated position before immediately bouncing back to their feet.
Then, they land back in a seated position and again bounce back to their feet. “Double-bouncing,” or bouncing in either position more than once, is not allowed.
Players must battle it out to see who will be the champion of endurance.
Hot Potato
In this game, one person stands on the outside of the trampoline and throws a ball to the other players who are jumping inside the trampoline.
The jumpers must catch the ball without letting it touch the trampoline mat and while continuing to jump.
The person on the outside of the trampoline then turns around and either sings a song or counts out-loud while the jumpers bounce around the trampoline passing the ball back and forth.
When the person on the ground stops singing or counting, whoever was last to touch the hot potato is out and sits in the center of the trampoline.
Freeze Bounce
This trampoline version of freeze dance is fun and challenging.
One person sits on the edge or outside of the trampoline as the referee with eyes closed while everyone else jumps on the trampoline.
When the referee yells, “Freeze!” everyone has to instantly stop jumping.
If some players are mid-jump, they have to land without bouncing back into the air again (which is a lot harder than it sounds).
It is the referee’s job to watch the players and decide who froze and who didn’t.
Anyone who did not freeze is out, and the last person standing wins.
Competition
Whether your kids love a contest or would rather try and beat their own personal high score, a competition is a great way to have fun on the trampoline.
A few people are designated as the judges and everyone else is a competitor.
The judges choose the competition, like highest jump, best trick, or most spins in the air.
The competitors take turns showing their skill at the competition, and the judges vote on the winner or keep up with each competitor’s high score.
Don’t Wake the Baby
This is the perfect game to play when your kids need a break from jumping but still want to be on the trampoline.
All the players get off the trampoline or sit around the edges.
One player is the baby and lays in the middle of the trampoline pretending to be asleep.
The other players creep up and try to tag the baby.
When someone tags the baby, the baby has to keep their eyes closed and guess who tagged them.
If the baby guesses correctly, the person who woke the baby becomes the new baby.
You can also have another player sit beside the baby and pretend to be the mother. When the baby is tagged, the mother gives the baby a hint by using one adjective to describe the person who tagged the baby.
Sequence
This game provides kids with a physical exercise while simultaneously strengthening their memory.
To start, draw different shapes around the trampoline with chalk.
One child jumps between two shapes and the other child has to repeat the sequence.
Then that child jumps between three different shapes and the other child tries to copy that sequence.
The players continue taking turns creating a sequence for the other child to copy, increasing the number of shapes in the sequence with each turn.
When one child cannot remember the correct sequence of shapes, the other chid wins.
Marco Polo
This favorite pool game is also a fun trampoline game.
One player is Marco and tries to tag the other players while keeping his eyes closed.
When Marco yells, “Marco,” the other players must yell back, “Polo.”
When Marco tags someone, that person becomes the new Marco.
Four Corners
This is another popular indoor game that is even more fun when played on the trampoline.
If you are like us and don’t have a rectangular trampoline with four obvious corners, use chalk or painters tape to mark four quadrants on the trampoline mat.
To play the game, one child sits in the center of the trampoline with closed eyes and counts to ten.
The other children move around the trampoline and must choose a corner (or quadrant) to stand in before the counter finishes counting.
Once the counter has counted to ten, he points to one of the corners, and anyone in that corner is out.
The players who are out sit in the middle of the trampoline with the counter and bounce on their knees while the counter counts again.
This will make it more difficult for the counter to figure out which corners the other children are in.
The game continues until there is only one player left standing, and that player is the winner.
Badminton
The thrill of trying to beat their own high score will lead kids to play this Badminton game over and over.
Two people (one on the trampoline and one on the ground) hit a birdie back and forth with rackets.
The goal is to see how many times they can knock the birdie back and forth without letting it touch the ground.
Sprinkler Fun
Placing a sprinkler underneath the trampoline or turning your trampoline into a waterpark with this trampoline sprinkler is sure to provide your kids with hours of trampoline fun.
Added bonus: the sprinkler will keep the trampoline mat from becoming burning hot in the sun, so your kids can have fun bouncing even in the heat of summer.
On a precautionary note, the trampoline gets slippery when wet, so be careful.
Water Balloons
Water balloons on the trampoline are another great way to cool off both the kids and the hot trampoline mat this summer.
Cover the trampoline with water balloons and your kids will have a blast watching them burst at their feet as they jump.
Any of the games listed above that are played with a ball are even more fun when played with water balloons, especially Cherry Bomb, Volleyball, or King of the Castle.
Again, as a precaution, the water will make the trampoline slippery.
Your kids will want to spend all their free time outside on the trampoline with these 45 awesome trampoline games!
