Pep rallies are supposed to get students excited, but the same old cheers and speeches can lose them fast. Adding fun pep rally games gives students something to watch, laugh at, and participate in. Students get really excited as they watch their classmates compete in simple games. It gives them an opportunity to cheer for their grade, and brings the student body together. These pep rally games are ideas that work for middle school and high school, including spirit weeks, homecoming, rivalry games, and other school events like senior night.
What Is a Pep Rally?
A pep rally is a school event designed to build excitement, school spirit, and support for students and sports teams. Pep rallies are often held before a big game, during homecoming or spirit week, or to celebrate another important school event. They usually include cheerleaders, the school band, team introductions, music, chants, announcements, and plenty of crowd participation. Adding games and friendly competitions can make the event even more fun and keep students engaged the entire time.
What Are Pep Rally Games?
Pep rally games are fun games played during a school pep rally to get students participating and increasing school spirit. They can include team challenges, relay races, trivia, and other silly contests that help build school spirit. The best pep rally games are ones where everyone already knows the rules and students can cheer as they watch. Most importantly, these games should be fun and safe. You don’t want anyone getting hurt and ruining the vibe!
Fun Pep Rally Games
1. Tug of War
Everyone loves watching a good tug of war battle! There are many different ways to set this up. You can either have different grades compete against each other, or you can have a students versus teachers battle! This game is great because even if people aren’t pulling the rope, they can participate by cheering!
2. Hungry Hungry Hippos
To play Hungry Hungry Hippos at a pep rally, have students lie on scooters while teammates hold their legs. The person on the scooter uses baskets or buckets to collect balls from the center, with their teammates moving them around. If scooters aren’t available, students can run to gather the balls instead.
3. Minute to Win It Games
Minute to Win It games are perfect for quick competitions at a pep rally. These short games are often hilarious to watch, too, making it amusing for even those who aren’t joining in. You can even turn it into a Minute to Win It showdown where you choose three or four challenges and have students from each grade level compete.
4. Human Tic-Tac-Toe
Use tape to set up a large tic-tac-toe grid on the floor of a gym. Split a group into two teams, and then they’ll fit themselves into the squares in an attempt to get three teammates in a row.
5. Balloon Pop Relay
Split into two teams, and then have one person from each team race down the court, pop a balloon by sitting on it, and run back to tag the next person on their team. They continue doing this until all teammates have had a turn. The first team to complete it wins.
6. Scooter Relay Race
Students race across the gym on scooters, maneuvering through cones or obstacles for extra difficulty. Split students into teams and have them take turns completing the course before tagging the next person. You can make the course as simple or hard as you want, depending on how much space you have.
7. Three-Legged Race
Pair students and tie one of each of their legs together. Then, have them race across the gym or field. This is one of the most fun teachers versus students pep rally games because it gets really funny.
8. Hula Hoop Pass
Split into teams and have each team stand in a line or in a circle holding hands. Once everyone’s in place, they must move a hula hoop through the entire team without letting go of each other’s hands. The first group to get the hoop all the way around or down the line wins.
9. Limbo
Limbo is fun, simple, and recognizable, so it’s easy for the crowd to follow. This is a great pep rally game because everyone knows how to play, and the rules are really easy to explain. Each round, you’ll lower the bar and continue doing this until only one person is left in the game. Play music during this to make it more fun.
10. Musical Chairs
Choose a few representatives from each grade, and maybe a few teachers, and play musical chairs during the pep assembly. For the music, use the school fight song and popular clean music. Keep removing chairs until you’re down to one winner.
11. Beach Ball Keep-Up
You can split into smaller teams on the gym floor, or include every student by throwing them into the crowd. If you have students sit with their grade levels, you can make it a competition between grade sections in the stands. Throw beach balls out, and students have to keep them in the air. The last team to have a ball still in the air wins.
12. Dress the Mascot
Teams race to dress a student or teacher in oversized school-spirit clothes, hats, jerseys, scarves, or mascot accessories. You can make this even more of a challenge by turning it into a relay, placing spirit gear at the opposite end of the gym. Then, have one player at a time race down, put an item on the mascot, run back, and tag the next person on their team.
13. Cookie Face Challenge
This game is hilarious and perfect for short games between announcements. Students place a cookie on their forehead and try to move it into their mouth without using their hands. Choose one student from each grade or team and see who can complete the challenge first.
14. Finish the Lyric
This game gets everyone excited, so it’s a hit with teens. Play a short part of a clean, recognizable song, and students have to sing or say the next line. You can choose a student from each grade to compete or let the entire crowd shout the answer.
15. Name That Song
Choose someone from each grade level to represent their class. Play a few seconds of a song, and have students raise a paddle or hit a buzzer when they’re ready to answer. The first to answer correctly wins.
16. Guess the Teacher
Show childhood photos of teachers and have students guess which teacher is pictured. Ask staff members to submit photos ahead of time, then display them on a projector or large screen.
17. School Trivia
Ask questions about teachers, school history, sports, mascots, or traditions. For example, you can ask questions like “when was our school founded?” Have students from each grade compete to see who knows the most. If you run out of questions to ask, you can move on to other fun trivia questions for teens.
18. Finish the School Cheer Chant
See how well the student body knows the school cheer chants by having the cheerleaders start one and having the rest of the students complete it. It’s a fun way to turn a pep rally game into actual school spirit.
19. Charades
Have students act out school-related words, sports, movies, or pop culture references. Choose charades prompts that aren’t too hard to identify to keep the game moving and entertaining.
20. Would You Rather
The pep rally edition of Would You Rather is a fun way to involve the entire student body. Have different sides of the gym represent each answer, and have students move based on their response. You could also play This or That, which is similar and just as fun.
21. Basketball Shooting Contest
Students compete in free throws, three-pointers, or shots from marked locations. Teachers vs. students is perfect for this pep rally game. You could also have one student from each grade compete and give different point values based on where they shoot from.
22. Football Toss
Students throw footballs through hoops, targets, or into bins from different distances. Assign more points to the harder targets and give each person a set number of throws. This is perfect to play before a big football game or during a homecoming pep rally.
23. Volleyball Serve Challenge
Players try to serve into marked areas or knock down targets. Set up a few targets with different point values and give each player a few attempts. Have volleyball players compete against teachers or students from other sports if you want to make it even more challenging.
24. Soccer Kick Challenge
Place targets in the goal and assign different point values to each target. Have players or students kick balls toward the targets. Give each person three or four tries and add up their points to determine the winner.
Best Pep Rally Games and Challenges
25. Obstacle Course
Use cones, hurdles, hoops, scooters, or gym mats to set up an obstacle course. Then, have a student from each grade race through the course. Add entertaining challenges along the way, like spinning around a bat, crawling under something, or carrying a ball.
26. Dance-Off
Choose a representative from each grade to compete in a dance off. This is similar to a dance battle, and you can have whoever gets the most cheers win! This is a great opportunity for someone to show off their dance skills!
27. Egg Toss
This is a great pep rally game because it usually goes pretty quick! You have each grade choose a pair of 2 students to compete in an egg toss. As they successfully complete catches, you can make them spread apart further.
28. Paper Airplane Toss
Have students create paper airplanes and write their names on the airplanes. Get everyone ready and have a big countdown to throw their airplanes. See which airplane made it the farthest and hold it up as the winner. Then, there is a big reveal as you unfold it and announce what name was written on it!
29. Jump Rope Competition
This is a super fun and easy pep rally game! Simply have participants jump rope for a minute straight and whoever has the most skips in that time wins! It is fun because the audience gets to cheer while seeing the count go up and up!
30. Toilet Paper Mummy
Split students into teams and give each team a few rolls of toilet paper. Have them choose one person to be the “mummy,” then race to completely wrap that person from head to toe. The first team to finish wrapping their mummy wins! This is an extra fun game if your pep rally is near Halloween!
31. Frozen T-Shirt Challenge
Before the pep rally, soak a few T-shirts in water and freeze them overnight. Give one frozen shirt to each contestant and have them race to thaw and unfold it enough to put it on. The first person to successfully put on their frozen T-shirt wins. Make sure to use shirts that are extra large so everyone is able to fit inside of them.
32. Cup Stacking Race
Did you know there is competitive cup stacking? Give each contestant the same number of plastic cups and have them race to build a pyramid. Once they finish building it, they have to take the pyramid back down into one stack. The first person to complete both parts of the challenge wins.
33. Marshmallow Toss
Have students compete in pairs, with one person tossing marshmallows while their partner tries to catch them in their mouth. After each successful catch, have the pairs take a step farther apart. The last pair that can successfully make a catch wins. It is very similar to egg toss, but they use their mouth instead of their hands for catching.
34. Balloon Waddle Race
Give each student a balloon and have them place it between their knees. Then they must race across the gym without dropping or popping their balloon. If the balloon falls, they have to stop and put it back between their knees before continuing. This is good fun for a pep rally because the students look really funny while waddling with the balloons between their legs.
35. Rock Paper Scissors Tournament
Get a large group of students involved in a giant rock paper scissors tournament. Have everyone pair up and play, with the winners moving on to face another winner. Keep playing rounds until only two students are left, then have them compete in front of the entire crowd to determine the champion.
36. Sponge Relay
Start by splitting the students into teams and place a bucket of water at one end of the gym and an empty bucket at the other. Students soak a sponge, race across the gym, squeeze the water into their team’s empty bucket, and then run back to hand the sponge to the next person. After a set amount of time, whichever team has transferred the most water wins.
37. Sticky Note Challenge
Give each team a stack of sticky notes and choose one teammate to be covered in them. Set a timer for one minute and have teams stick as many notes as possible onto their teammate. When time runs out, count how many sticky notes are still attached to determine the winner. This game is a fun pep rally game because the students look absolutely ridiculous when covered by sticky notes.
38. Bucket Brigade
This is a great pep rally game to play outside on the grass. Split students into teams and give each team two buckets. Fill one bucket with water and place the empty bucket a short distance away. Students take turns using a small cup to carry water from one bucket to the other, and the team that transfers the most water before time runs out wins.
39. Simon Says
Get the entire student body involved in a giant game of Simon Says. Have a teacher (or other adult) call out commands while everyone follows along. Anyone who moves when the leader doesn’t say “Simon says” is out. You can keep playing the game until there is only one person remaining.
40. Giant Connect Four
Set up a giant Connect Four board and have students from different grades compete against each other. Players take turns dropping pieces into the board while trying to get four in a row. You can turn it into a quick tournament and have the winners of each round move on until there is one final champion.