Tobar Wooden Labyrinth Marble Maze Toy, Brown

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No marble, no problem! Use a large bead OR crumple a small piece of aluminum foil and roll it between your palms to form a ball. Labyrinths: These mazes have multiple paths and require the traveler to find the route which will lead them to their destination. These usually have either no dead ends or all dead ends at the same point for there not to be any confusion about which path is correct.

Take a small chunk of playdough and roll it into a “snake” shape. Repeat this to make a handful of playdough snakes. Find out how to make this impressive roller coaster run from a single 2×4 board. This one’s for the adults to make and requires some tools, but the step-by-step tutorial make it easier to follow along and the end result will be worth it. Children use their own creativity when creating obstacles. They work on math concepts and cause and effect when designing their layout to create a unique marble maze game using different-sized pieces. How to Make a Marble Maze from Drinking Straws It doesn’t get any easier than this. Recycle an old cereal box and you’ve got yourself a playful toy that will keep the kids entertained for quite a while.

If you’ve got the space for it, go big with this peg board marble ramp which is easily constructed out paper tubes. Continue adding sections of playdough to make a complete maze. You can also add balls of dough to make “bumpers.” Optional: Cut straws and press them into the dough or hot glue them in place.

Your maze design won’t be as elaborate as these, but see how many of these common maze design elements you can use in your homemade maze. What is a Marble Maze? I originally created this project for my book STEAM Play & Learn and the project included in the book uses 3 only materials: a box lid, playdough, and a marble. More recently I also started including paper straws in the project as another way to add color and lines. You are welcome to use them too! When you design the marble maze you will need to test out the different locations of the playdough walls and bumpers to make sure a marble can roll through or be stopped. You also have a chance to design your own maze including the location of the walls, the colors you use and how easy or hard you want the maze to be. A marble maze is a type of game in which the player navigates a marble through a DIY maze by rolling it at different angles. The goal is to get the marble from the start point to the finish point without touching any of the walls. Marble mazes are one of the projects I like to do in our after school STEAM program at the beginning of the year as a way to introduce kids to design through play. Kids love to make and play with their own toys and this DIY marble maze is easy for kids of all ages to create and enjoy.The benefits of learning toys can be seen in the classroom as well. Studies have shown that students who use learning toys in the classroom perform better on tests than those who don’t. As you design your maze, be sure to test your design. This is part of the design process. If your marble cannot fit through a space or if the playdough walls are too short make adjustments to improve your maze! Also think about this project through the lens of a toy designer. Is there a theme to your design? Is the marble a character or is there a mission involved in solving this maze? What would you name your DIY marble maze game? Creating a story or imaginative elements is something toy designers often employ in their product designs. Here are images of the marbles mazes our students made!