Easy to Make Marble Trails

Marble Maze

• Design a maze for the marbles to travel through and exit. After drawing the design on a sheet of paper, find a strong cardboard box that you can cut a large sheet from. Cardboard is corrugated, making it strong enough to support the marble trail. Draw your maze design on the cardboard sheet using a ruler and marker. You will recreate the maze design with jumbo craft sticks hot glued to the sheet of cardboard.

Marble Drop

• A marble drop has a very different design. The marble drop is just that, a pattern of little guides that directs the marble from the top of the drop through a pattern of guides the marble rolls by and drops it to the next level of guides, continuing until the marble comes to the end of the drop.

Decoration

• With craft paint, watercolors or markers, decorate the cardboard. Draw or paint the path or highway the marble will take. Create a city street with buildings, sidewalks or houses lining the street. Stickers can be used to decorate any part of the maze that a marble won̵7;t travel on. Personalize the marble trail with a name, or create a town using a child̵7;s name. For instance, a child named Bill can have a town called Billville.

Construction

• Jumbo craft sticks have rounded ends that need to be cut off to make straight edges. Use scissors to cut the rounded ends off craft sticks so they fit together in the trail. If you make a maze, build its outer walls first. Build the inside of the maze in sections, and test each area to ensure that a marble can pass through each part of the maze. Build a marble drop from the top down. Add each step the marble will take by gluing a jumbo craft stick to the cardboard. Glue a craft stick to the cardboard by running a bead of hot glue on the edge of the stick and placing it on the cardboard. The length of the craft sticks will vary as you create the maze or marble drop. Glue sticks in a ̶0;V̶1; shape at the bottom of the trail to catch the marble.

Maintenance

• If a jumbo craft stick becomes loose or wobbly, it can be easily reinforced with an extra bead of hot glue run the length of the stick. Add additional sticks and steps to your maze or expand the maze at any time.

Tip

• If a wall of your maze is longer than the jumbo craft sticks, glue your sticks in place end to end, and then cut a 2-inch piece of craft stick and glue it to the back side of two craft sticks where the ends meet to reinforce the wall.