MONSTER marble game

I found this Marble Circus and just knew I would have to figure out a way to make one work for us!  (Funny thing was that my mom came across the same post a week later and sent it to me.)  This fun activity stayed tucked away in my brain until my mom presented M and M with a large bag of treasures.

After spending quite a bit of time sorting, I decided to use the marbles from the bag for a little Monster Marble fun.

what you need: construction paper ~ box ~ box cutter ~ markers or crayons ~ glue ~ marbles

After cutting six openings in the construction paper, we all took turns creating a monster for our marble game.

I used hot glue to attach the construction paper.  (White glue would work too!)  We cut the holes in the box… by we, I mean Hubs since I can not be trusted with a box cutter. =)

Since we like our baseboards and didn’t want marbles banging into them, I propped up a piece of cardboard behind the Monster Marble Box.  We quickly found out the the marbles went EVERYWHERE!

Using large blocks we made a “game area”.  Yahoo, that worked at keeping the marbles where we wanted them, and gave the game a more put-together feel.

This little box, so simple to make, has entertained M and M for an entire week.  It’s still out and I imagine will be going strong for a while to come.

Tips (to maximize learning):  1.  Let your little ones invent the rules to make this a game.  Then sit down a play a few rounds!  Big M’s rules were silly, but he had so much fun being in charge.  2.  Limit the amount of marbles.  We quickly learned that 10 each is plenty, and a lot easier to clean up!

Don’t miss the toddler version I will posting later today.  Subscribe to have the post delivered to your reminder of choice!  See those cute little pink buttons on the right sidebar?  Just click one (or all) of those!

This post is a part of the Monster lesson plan.