Monday, June 13, 2011

Recycled Marble Run Fun!

We finally decided to get on the bandwagon and create our own Marble Run! So many blogs have been inspiring us....click on the link after this post for our inspiration. We made a Marble Run from our Magna Tile Toys here, but it was much more creative and enjoyable to create a "Run" from the ground up! We used all kinds of recycled materials that we have been collecting for the the past few months! Check it out:


Here are all the recycled tubes, oatmeal boxes, raisin containers, yogurt cups, food boxes, milk cartons, and egg cartons we had to choose from!


We started by cutting apart tubes and making tunnels from cylindrical boxes! We've eaten a lot of oatmeal and raisins in the past few months! We used tape to temporarily hold the recycled materials together so we could test out our runs and ramps.


Here is Cassie testing out this newly formed ramp. Our marble run went through a lot of changes as we were building and testing things out.


We found since we were building higher structures that we needed a base to put everything on! Thankfully we had some huge cardboard pieces in the basement! Cassie wanted to lay all over the cardboard.


Once we knew what structures were working we used a glue gun to hold things together. The glue gun worked well for fast joining of pieces! It was a little dangerous working with a glue gun on the floor because we had shorts on! It worked out well though!


In the end we made two runs off the highest tower.  We used other containers for support underneath and added a couple tunnels too.


Cassie tested out the two ramps and found one to be faster!  The one with the steeper hill in the beginning was faster (The right ramp)! I guess this could be a preschool physics lesson of some sort?


Cassie and I had a lot of FUN building our Marble Run! We also enjoyed playing with it and testing out all the marbles.  Isn't it amazing that you can create your own toy? What a valuable lesson to teach children! I'm so glad that we have all this inspiration from such great blogs to do such wonderful activities!


Have we inspired you to create a Marble 
Run???

Seven different Marble Runs that inspired us  can be found here.


14 comments:

  1. I definitely also need to make a cardboard marble run with my children, now!
    I too have had it on my to-do list, but this post and the fun, and creativity evident is VERY motivating!!
    Cheers, Melissa!!
    Brenda

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  2. How fun and creative!! Love it. Thanks for inspiring again.
    This is on my-to-do list too, just need to find some marbles.. have looked all around, guess just ned to order from amazon!

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  3. I'm inspired! I love how you made it 3-D, like a spider or a water slide park As soon as I saw the two ramps, I thought of marble races. Next time we make a marble run, this is exactly what we're going to do. Time to save more packaging!

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  4. yes, you've inspired us! thanks so much for sharing on Craft Schooling Sunday!

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  5. Ooh another fabulous marble run! I LOVE yours.. how great to just dig into the recycling box and see what comes out of it. My son would LOVE this. Fabulous!

    Thank you for sharing on Kids Get Crafty! Always fab to see you there!

    Maggy

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  6. That is a great idea! We will be saving bits to make our own. x

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  7. Love your marble run! I recently made one on poster board. I also saw one for the fridge I cant wait to make. Yours looks like a success!

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  8. I've seen them all around the place but haven't given it a go ourselves yet - you've inspired me!

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  9. This looks like heaps of fun. My mother-in-law just found my husband's old marble collection from when he was a kid! Now I can't wait to use them on our own marble run design. Thanks for the inspiration!

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  10. I love that you posted this. It gives me something to do with my grand son when I go visit with him in August. Thanks for sharing.

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  11. Love all of your marble run ideas. These all = some fantastic fun. Here is the link to one we posted. http://livingatthewhiteheadszoo.blogspot.com/2011/05/our-upcycled-marble-run.html

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  12. Wow it really looks like fun! We will do this..
    Thanks for sharing and the research of marble links!

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  13. You did great! We'll have to do this too! :) Thanks for adding this to last week's High paw! See you again this week.

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  14. so fun - this is my featured "showcase" post pic of the week at The Sunday Showcase! I am so inspired to create one of these with the girls!

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