Game for the Pool: Dibble Dabble

This is a fun, low prep game that will keep the students busy for hours (with or without you).

Prep:

1. Cut a few toothpicks to different sizes (These are the Dibble Dabbles)
2. Color them with spots in different colors
3. Wasn’t that easy?

Play:

1. Have everybody stand on the side of the pool
2. Give one person one Dibble Dabble (colored toothpick you made)
3. That person swims underwater the length of the pool
4. Somewhere along the way, the swimmer must drop the Dibble Dabble without people being able to tell where it was dropped
5. The game cannot start until the swimmer is completely out of the pool (The swimmer is done and cannot play this round)
6. The players, standing on the side of the pool, try to locate the Dibble Dabble. They can jump in at any time, but it’s easier to find if they wait to jump in until they see it (They won’t be that patient, it doesn’t matter)
7. Once a player finds a Dibble Dabble, that person yells “Dibble Dabble”
8. To win, the player with the Dibble Dabble must exit the pool before being tagged
9. If the player gets tagged, move to the next round

Strategic hint: Players should not yell “Dibble Dabble” until they have moved away from the crowd, but before leaving the water

Game variations:

1. Double Dabble: The same game is played with two Dibble Dabbles. The winning player is the one who finds both Dibble Dabbles and exits the pool without being tagged after yelling Dibble Dabble. This version is trickier because two players may have Dibble Dabbles without anybody knowing it. In this version, players can tag anybody they suspect has a Dibble Dabble. If the person has one, that player must surrender the Dibble Dabble and is out. The player who tagged the Dibble Dabble holder takes the Dibble Dabble and cannot be tagged unless that player gets the other Dibble Dabble. Once one player has both Dibble Dabbles, he or she must yell Dibble Dabble and exit the pool without being tagged.

2. Triple Dabble: Just like Double Dabble, but more intense