Pep Rally Games & Ideas
December 2, 2024
In charge of setting up a pep rally for your school, but not sure where to start? These 55 fun pep rally games and ideas will get your creative juices flowing and get your students in the mood to support their classmates and themselves.
Fun Activities & Ideas for Pep Rallies
1) Mascot Skit
Get the school mascot or mascots to perform a skit with the sports team or marching band to kick off the pep rally and get people fired up.
2) Wacky Marching Band Performance
Work with the pep or marching band conductor to stage a wild rendition of a favorite school tune or a new classic. Let the marching band break loose and choreograph the performance how they want.
3) Cheerleading Squad vs. Dance Team Competition
This would work well for any two squads, like pom poms and color guard, for example. Get the two to design a specific performance for the pep rally and have the crowd vote on who wins.
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4) Human Knot
Break students into large groups and have them all connect each hand with a different person (they can’t hold both of someone else’s hands). The first team to “untie” the human knot by not letting go of their hands and making one single circle out of the group, wins.
5) Pass the Hula Hoop
Break students into large groups and have them hold hands to form a single line. Each team has to pass a hula hoop over the bodies of each person in the line without breaking the hand-holds. The first to do it wins!
6) Plunger Scooter Race
Give five or ten students low-lying scooters (used in PE) and one toilet plunger each. The goal is to make it the whole way across the gym while on the scooter, propelling themselves only with the toilet plunger.
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7) Sweep the Potato
Line students up at one end of the gym and give them a broom and a potato. The first person to sweep the potato to the other end wins!
8) Scooter Soccer
Have two teams of students sit on low-lying scooters. Give each team a goal. And have them play soccer. The game is on!
9) Dizzy Bat Race
Break students into teams of ten. Have them form a single file line. Give the first person in the line a baseball bat, and have them put their forehead to the bat and spin around quickly ten times, then run to the other side of the gym and come back. At that point, the next person in line spins around the bat, runs the length of the gym, and so on. The first line done wins!
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10) Sack Race
Bring the classic sack race to the pep rally! Give each participant a large sack and have them hop their way from start to finish.
11) Musical Chairs
It’s the classic kitchen game, brought back for the pep rally. Make a circle of chairs with one fewer chairs than there are players. Turn on a song for a minute, and when you turn it off, everyone has to run for a chair. The person who doesn’t get a chair is out. One chair gets removed, and the song starts again. The process repeats until only the winner remains!
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12) Relay Race Limbo
This game involves limbo in teams. Teams go lower and lower with the limbo bar until someone falls. That team is out! How low can the lowest team go?
13) Elephant March
Students run across the gym on all four like elephants to see who wins. You can play this with a trick: they have to carry a pool noodle or other tube against their nose like an elephant trunk and walk on two legs and one arm. Even more challenging!
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14) Toilet Paper Mummy
Teams get a few rolls of toilet paper and just a few minutes to see who can build the best mummy. The crowd decides the winner.
15) Make the Snake
Break students into teams of ten or fifteen students. The start in a single file line. The first player runs out to the starting line and lies down. Only when they’re fully on the floor can the next player run out and put their head at the feet of the person on the ground. The process repeats until everyone is on the floor. The first team to make the snake wins!
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16) Crab and Bear Walk Relay Race
Line up teams of even numbers of students on both sides of the gym. The first player has to bear walk to the other side, then their teammate must crab walk to the first side, where the next bear walker will begin. The first team to get all the animals across the gym first wins.
17) Teacher Tricycle Race
Get your school’s favorite teachers involved in the fun! Get those adults on some tiny tricycles and have them race across the gym. Students can even break up into teams to support their favorite racer!
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18) Tennis Ball Transfer Relay Race
Put a tennis ball inside a hula hoop and another empty hula hoop on the other side of the gym. The first player has to pick up a tennis ball with their knees and walk with it between their knees to the other hula hoop, where they will drop it for the next player who is waiting there. If they drop the ball, they have to run back to the first hoop and start all over again!
19) Choreographed Dance Contest, Year vs. Year
Each class should nominate a group of ten to 15 students to choreograph a dance that represents their year, to whatever song they choose. The classes reveal their dances at the pep rally, and the teachers vote on who wins.
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20) Human Hungry Hungry Hippos
Give four to six students a small scooter and a laundry basket and place them in a circle facing one another. Drop a bunch of tennis and wiffle balls in the middle of the circle. The students should “eat” the balls with their laundry baskets, just like the classic children’s game. The student who gobbles up the most, wins.
21) Tug-of-War
Break classes up into groups of two or four and make a big tug-of-war game that takes up the whole gym.
22) Balloon Train
Break students up into large groups and make them stand in a single file line. Give the first student a blown-up balloon. They have to turn and hold the balloon between themselves and the person behind them. Then the next student has to turn quickly to keep the balloon in the air and trap it between their body and the body of the next student. They keep going until they reach the end of the line. If the balloon hits the floor, the whole team starts over again. The first team to get through the line wins!
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23) Hula Hoop Race
Each player gets two hula hoops and one stick. They have to move from one end of the gym to the other, progressing forward only by using their two hula hoops and their stick. Additionally, the can never hop out of the hoops, only from hoop to hoop, and the hoops must touch the entire time. They can’t leap far distances from hoop to hoop.
24) Head Shoulders Knees Cone
Line students up in pairs with a single cone or plastic cup between them. When the coach or a teacher blows the whistle, the students must touch their head, shoulder, and knees, and then the first one to pick up the cone or cup wins the pair. The winners keep facing off until just one winner remains!
Pep Rally Themes
25) Homecoming Throwback
The homecoming committee picks a “golden decade” from the school’s past. The whole school dresses up as if they’re from that decade! Maybe the mascot changes? Maybe the teachers get dressed up, too?
26) 80s Themed Pep Rally
Big hair, big shoulder pads, and even bigger attitudes! Have fun with Aqua Net and leg warmers with an 80s throwback rally.
27) 90s Themed Pep Rally
The 90s are back, baby. Grunge, boys bands, girl bands, whatever you want goes in this 90s pep rally.
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28) Early 2000s Themed Pep Rally
Time for a digital get down in the new millennium in this early 2000s themed pep rally.
29) Wild West Pep Rally
Break out your cowboy hats and boots and get your students line dancing and do-si-doing with a Wild West Pep Rally.
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30) Techno Pep Rally
Break out the electronic music and the brightly colored clothes and have yourselves a dance party!
31) Rainbow Pep Rally
Get into the rainbow spirit and deck out everyone in some color of ROY, G., or BIV!
32) Bizarro Rival School Pep Rally
Got a big game coming up against the school rival? Get a team of willing, popular students to dress up like the rivals and get everyone to throw crunched up newspapers at them before the marching band and cheerleaders lead the school in some chants.
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33) Everybody’s the Mascot-Themed Pep Rally
Get everybody to dress up at their version of the school mascot for this school spirit-filled fest!
34) Town History-Themed Pep Rally
Work with your history teachers to find out an intriguing part of the town’s history. Deck out the gym in period decorations and the students in costumes from the era.
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35) Dress Up Like Your Favorite Teacher Themed Pep Rally
Have students choose their favorite teacher and dress up like them—the best version of each teacher wins a prize!
36) 24-Hour Lock-In Pep Rally
This is a serious pep rally, but it can really be fun. Get permission for a 24-hour lock in to raise money for a local charity and drive support for the school. The night can be filled with competitions and games and students can bring sleeping bags and pillows to crash when need be.
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37) Decorate the School Pep Rally
This pep rally can be a way to prepare for something like homecoming or another big event. The whole idea is to spend the time of the pep rally decorating the school in whatever theme you’ve chosen. Break students into teams to hang banners, streamers, balloons, to make signs, and to set up photo stations. Fun and useful!
38) Undersea Pep Rally
Turn the school into an undersea adventure and get students dressed up like mer-people, fish, and whatever else they want! It could be a great way to support a successful swim team!
Pep Rally Ideas
39) Principal Dunk Tank
There’s nothing better than getting one over on the principal. Rent a dunk tank and have students buy raffle tickets to take a chance at dunking the principal. Raise money for charity in the meantime.
40) Pie Your Teacher in the Face
Another great way to get students rallied up. Get willing teachers to be the subjects of a raffle to pie them in the face. All the money can go to charity or to raise money for the marching band or a specific team.
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41) Lip Sync Battle
How fun is that? Put on a big song and have students lip sync battle to the crowd. The other students vote for the winner!
42) Foam Noodle Entrance
Teachers hold foam pool noodles over their heads so that, when students run into the pep rally, they have to run through the pool noodles.
43) Banner Competition
Get students to build teams and design banners that they’ll make during the pep rally. They can show off and get the teachers and staff to judge the best banner.
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44) The Biggest Fan Competition
Invite students ahead of time to dress themselves up like the biggest fan of the school. Face paint? Costumes? Wacky hair styles? Wild dance moves? The only limitation is their imagination!
45) Yearbook Reveal
Get the yearbook staff to reveal and hand out the school yearbook at a spring pep rally. Students can spend the second half getting signatures from their classmates.
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46) Team Sport Swap
Get the cheerleaders to dress up like the football players and vice versa! Or get the basketball players to dress up like the swim team. Or the marching band to dress up like the pom pons! The sky’s the limit.
47) Dance-Off For Charity
Hold a 24-hour charity dance contest. Students raise money from friends, family, and neighbors who are willing to sponsor them to try to dance for 24 hours straight.
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48) Food Bank Fundraiser
The pep rally can turn into a force for good when students use their school spirit to bring in non-perishable food items for the local food bank.
49) Winter Coat and Hat Drive Fundraiser
When the temperatures start to turn, host a school-spirit-themed drive to get the most vulnerable in the community warm with a winter coat and hat drive.
50) Giant Teacher/Principal “Bobbleheads”
Print out giant photos of the most popular teachers’ faces and paste them onto large pieces of cardboard for students to unveil during the pep rally.
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51) Plank Competition
Get students to sign up to see how long they can hold a plank. The winner gets a shoutout at the next game!
52) Pushup Competition
Get the brawniest boys and girls to compete—who can do the most pushups without stopping?
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53) Squat Competition
Keep your thighs on the prize: who can do the most squats before they fail?
54) Four Square Round Robin
Get your students to compete in a four square round robin with different courts around the gym. All the winners face off until there’s just one champion left!
55) Human Pyramid
Make sure you keep everyone safe by putting down some big gymnastics mats and spotters, but give students the chance to build whatever kind of human pyramid they can to see which group can build theirs the tallest!
Additional Teacher Resources
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