Build a Nerf War Battlefield

Build a Nerf War Battlefield in your own backyard for an adrenaline-pumping, active play experience and STEM challenge. It’s not as hard as you think and it is a great upcycle and engineering challenge for kids. Not to mention the hours of play that will follow once it’s constructed.

Build A Nerf War Battlefield In Your Own Yard

Build a Nerf War Battlefield for a Nerf War birthday party or a summer filled with fun! A brilliant outdoor engineering challenge using upcycled items.

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When my son announced that he wanted to have a Nerf gun war party for his birthday I immediately started researching places that host these types of parties, only to be very disappointed by what I discovered. So I decided to turn this into a STEM project for the kids and convert our backyard into a Nerf Battlefield. This was the ultimate way to have a summer of Nerf Challenge Experiences, all in our own backyard anytime we wanted!

The Backyard Nerf Battle Space

We live on the outskirts of town and are lucky to have quite a large backyard, but unless you have a postage stamp yard, these Nerf War Battlefield obstacles could be built in many urban areas, backyards or schoolyards.

And the best part is that our Nerf War Battlefield uses materials that were heading for the dump or recycling anyway, so it’s a fantastic way to upcycle and build something amazing for next to nothing in cost!

The benefits don’t end there.

Doing this project with the family will teach kids engineering and construction skills, how to use tools, and critical thinking skills as they plan and design their course. Plus, the obstacle courses they build could also be used for other types of game play and a variety of sports.

Build a Nerf War Battlefield for a Nerf War birthday party or a summer filled with fun! A brilliant outdoor engineering challenge using upcycled items.

Supplies

  • Wood Palettes
  • Tires
  • Long Screws
  • Screw driver or cordless drill
  • Work gloves
  • Any other supplies you can think of to build obstacles
  • Nerf Guns
  • Nerf Bullets

To start you need some wood palettes. These can be found in lots of industrial areas. Check your local Kijiji or Craig’s List or Facebook Buy/Sell type groups and I’m sure you will find someone getting rid of these. You might even find them at a local eco-station.

Next you need some tires. Again you can ask around, check local buy/sell or your local eco-station. Our local eco-station always has hundreds of tires waiting to be recycled.

Finally some long screws, which you may already have in your garage.

While building these I recommend you wear gloves. The palettes tend to have splinters and the tires dirty. Give everything a good wash and take a palm sander to the palettes if they are particularly rough.

Now start building your Nerf War Battlefield!

Start simple, stack some tires. We spent some time determining how many tires tall our obstacles should be. It was interesting watching the kids test and evaluate until they determined that 3 tires high was a good height for them.

Next, with the help of Dad, they decided to attach two palettes at the top with a long screw to create a pyramid. These can be placed point up, so you can crawl underneath, or place the palettes on their side to create a barrier you can hide behind. The cool thing with this side arrow type placement is that you can pop a board off and create a slot for firing through.

Build a Nerf War Battlefield for a Nerf War birthday party or a summer filled with fun! A brilliant outdoor engineering challenge using upcycled items.

The boys wanted to do a storm the castle type game, so they also created a special barrier that included two palettes, a stack of tires, and a tire on the top on it’s side. In that top tire they would hide a prize that the teams had to try and capture.

Build a Nerf War Battlefield for a Nerf War birthday party or a summer filled with fun! A brilliant outdoor engineering challenge using upcycled items.

When the boys were happy with the course they had built it was time to organize the Nerf guns!

Here were their favourite Nerf picks:

         

Tips For Running A Game

The easiest way to run a Nerf War battle is to have everyone bring their own guns, but ask that they only bring guns that use the standard bullets. That way while they are playing they can simply scoop up more ammunition and keep going. We found it easiest to provide all the bullets. That way no one had to worry about losing their bullets. Then at the end of the day we gathered up all the bullets in a bucket, ready for next time.

Build a Nerf War Battlefield for a Nerf War birthday party or a summer filled with fun! A brilliant outdoor engineering challenge using upcycled items.

We also grabbed a batch of old Nerf guns that someone was selling locally so we had lots of extra guns on hand. In the end the only cost for building our Nerf Gun Battlefield was the bullets (which we bought new), and the second hand guns. Not only was it a fraction of what the facilities were charging but now we can have Nerf battles all summer long and my boys continue to go out and engineer new barriers and obstacles.

Going Beyond Nerf

Once you have built your Nerf War Battlefield you can use it for so many other things! Just a few ideas we came up with:

Bring some STEM and Create A First Person Video

You can see the course in action in this awesome first person video my son created. Learn more about how he did this here.

It is going to be a fantastic and fun summer in our backyard with our Nerf War Battlefield this year! This STEM Project was a Nerf fan’s dream birthday and summer experience!

Build a Nerf War Battlefield for a Nerf War birthday party or a summer filled with fun! A brilliant outdoor engineering challenge using upcycled items.

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