Marble Runs and Other Activities with Marbles for Kids

April 6, 2023 by Sarah White Leave a Comment

I read that April 7 is National Marble Day, but of course any day is a good day to play with marbles. Making marble runs is a great STEM activity, and you can even pull in some art activities by painting with marbles and using them in other ways, too. Check out these fun marble run ideas and other activities to do with marbles.

You can make a marble run with a cereal box (Made by Joel), or a box and craft sticks (Frugal Fun for Boys and Girls), a paper plate (Kids Activities Blog) or several (Frugal Fun again), cardboard tubes (Powerful Mothering), a geo board (love this one from The Creative Homemaker) Legos (Mama Papa Bubba), an old CD case (Bloesem) foam pipe insulation (Buggy and Buddy) or pool noodles (Little Bins for Little Hands) just to name a few. Give your kiddos a bunch of supplies and see what they come up with!

Use an inclined plane to build your marble run and it becomes a science lesson, too. Check out this one from Preschool Toolkit.

How about some art projects? This marble sun catcher from Kids Activities Blog is so pretty I want to make one myself. Mable painting is also fun for adults as well as kids, and you can learn how to do it from the Artful Parent.

Did you know you can use marbles in tie dyeing? It’s a simple technique that gives fun results. Check out the instructions on FaveCrafts. They used socks but you could of course do this with a shirt, bandana or anything else you want to dye.

If you have marbles and plastic cups you can make this super simple marble game from All for the Boys. So easy and kids can play it over and over (use a cardboard box if you don’t have cups handy).

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Reflecting on the Past Year with Kids

I’m in deep denial about the fact that new year is almost upon us again! It’s been the fastest and the longest year at the same time, and I can look back and see some good things as well as some things I wish had gone differently.

Doing a year in review with your kids — whether in the classroom or at home — is a good way to capture some of their memories and the things they really liked about the year gone by.

There are a lot of different printable year in review worksheets you can use if you want to make this super easy. Here are links to a few (often part of larger posts about NYE celebrations with kids that are worth a read, too):

Teach Beside Me has lots of fun printables fro the end of the year, including a year in review that covers favorite memory, funniest memory and the best book they read, among other topics.
NurtureStore‘s version has space for a self-portrait and prompts like favorite toy, best day out this year and future dream job.
Remember favorites, their “best idea” of the year and have room for setting goals for next year with this one from The Keele Deal.
The year in review from Yes We Made This has room for drawing or writing and includes things like something they learned, a memory they made and a place they visited.

Of course you could pretty easily make your own year in review for the whole family to do that asks questions based on what you most want to remember. (Favorite video game? Best friend? Favorite family memory?)

And if after the year in review you’re ready to look ahead a bit, Mrs. Merry has new year’s resolution printables to inspired kids to look ahead and set goals for things they want to try. You can totally fill this one out as a grownup, too.

[Photo: Mrs. Merry]

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