The winter season has a lot of perks: cozy fires, hot chocolate, the holidays, and playing in the snow to name a few. However, the winter can also be filled with harsh weather, forcing you and your little ones to stay indoors for days on end. While it’s easy enough to keep your child occupied for an afternoon, cabin fever can quickly set in and drive everyone a bit crazy.
If you are looking for a creative and inexpensive way to head off winter-induced meltdowns, try marbles! If you haven’t ever experimented with marbles, you are missing out. These marble activities for kids will give you plenty of simple and creative ways to play indoors year-round. Bookmark this list and reach for it the next time you’re cooped up inside!
8 Marble Activities for Kids in Preschool
Preschoolers find magic in pretty much anything. Your child will love trying each of these marble activities for kids in preschool as they race, paint, and create—all using the humble marble! These glass balls provide hours of entertainment, and will also help your pre-k child practice essential skills such as their fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. They are going to laugh and giggle like crazy the entire time, which will certainly brighten the mood for everyone!
1. Homemade Marble Run – Buggy and Buddy
This homemade marble run is fantastic. It provides plenty of fun learning opportunities as your child adjusts a simple DIY track to see how it changes the speed and course of the marble. The kids will have a ball (haha) playing with this one while also learning the basics of physics.
2. Rainbow Painting | Kids Craft Room
Help your favorite little preschooler create art with marbles! Show your child how to dip marbles into brightly colored paint, then scoop them onto a tray covered with paper. Let your child roll the marbles around and watch as they are absolutely captivated.
3. Paper Plate Maze | Raising Lifelong Learners
Your kiddos can quickly help put together a paper plate maze with some basic supplies such as glue, scissors, and marbles. They will want to play with this for hours on end.
4. Simple Marble Game | All For The Boys
You won’t believe how incredibly entertaining this easy game is. Use leftover plastic cups and cut openings out at the bottom. Let your child aim the marble into the hole you’ve created and replicate this fun marble game.
5. Recycled Marble Run | Lemon Lime Adventures
This marble activity for kids earned the name of a recycled marble run because you use items that would otherwise end up in your recycling bin, like paper towel rolls. The options are endless as to what your kids can create with this idea.
6. Cereal Box Marble Run | Made By Joel
Don’t throw out those cereal boxes, save them for this fun marble game designed for preschoolers! Your little one will get so excited to make their own marble runs from a cereal box. This one requires a little extra help from mom or dad to set up, but once it’s ready, your child will be entertained for hours.
7. DIY Marble Maze | Coffee Cups And Crayons
Use this project to let your preschooler practice their fine motor skills while they use clay to make the walls of this fun maze. Once the maze is built, they will have the additional challenge of navigating the marble around the maze, which is a great way to practice their hand-eye coordination!
8. Marble Suncatchers | Kids Activities Blog
Your children will be proud to display these marble suncatchers. Try different colors and designs, and see which your child likes best before adding the glue to secure everything in place. This one will be a favorite among preschoolers for sure.
8 Marble Activities for Kids in Kindergarten
Kindergarteners have some of the highest energy levels than any other age group. That coupled with their natural curiosity can make your five-year-old the most susceptible to cabin fever. These marble activities for kids will distract them from the gloomy outdoors, and help get some of their wiggles out in a productive way. Plus, these can all be done in just a few simple steps, which makes them ideal for shorter attention spans (and fuses).
1. Marble Tunnel Challenge | Kitchen Counter Chronicles
Have more than one child at home with you? This marble challenge is a wonderful way for the kids to have contests with each other. This game can easily be modified to allow a younger or older child to play alongside your kindergartener.
2. Marble Necklaces | How Does She?
The kids will need an adult to help do the sewing portion of this project, but letting them pick their designs will keep them happy while also allowing them to practice their hand-eye coordination.
3. Craft Stick Marble Run | Frugal Fun For Boys And Girls
Using craft sticks, a cardboard box, and hot glue, your children can make a seemingly unlimited amount of different marble runs with this marble activity. Each child can make theirs however they want, and they will all be unique. Make this activity last even longer by encouraging your child to decorate the outside of their box as well.
4. Marble Toss Game | How Stuff Works
This marble toss game is one of my favorite marble activities for kids because it’s so easy and entertaining. You just need some simple supplies like an egg carton, crayon, marbles, and a beach towel. Create a start line for your child and watch as they try to toss the marble into the egg cart.
5. Marble Toss | Pretty Handy Girl
Fair warning: this marble toss requires a bit of planning. You will have to help build this marble toss, but your children will love playing this fantastic game. Think of this one as a corn hole in miniature—your child will toss the marbles into the holes, then use those math skills to add up the points at the end.
6. Marble Run Water Slide | Mama Papa Bubba
Make this fun water slide in the bathtub, or simply place a container at the base of the slide to catch the marbles. Either way, this racing game is a lot of fun and provides easy entertainment for your kindergartener.
7. Paper Tube Marble Run | Powerful Mothering
Your kids can paint the paper tubes for this activity and then transform them into a marble run, allowing them to use both their left and right brains. This is an excellent way for children to experiment and learn without even realizing it.
8. Tie-Dyed Socks | Fave Crafts
Merge practical and fun together by helping your kindergartener make tie-dye socks using marbles. They’ll love showing off their creations afterward!
8 Marble Activities for Kids in Elementary School
Elementary-aged kids love to explore and learn all sorts of new things. While your child might be excited to spend a day at home, that doesn’t mean the learning has to stop! This age group can learn about math, technology, science, and even engineering through these marble activities for kids.
1. LEGO Marble Maze | Mama Papa Bubba
There are no wrong answers when it comes to making a LEGO marble maze. Your children will enjoy making all sorts of marble mazes and trying to figure out how to get their marble through each one.
2. Marble Maze | The Creative Homemaker
Elementary-aged kids will likely need some assistance in making these mazes, but they will enjoy decorating and playing with the finished product. This project will help build their concentration skills and also allow their creative side to come out—the perfect combination to fight cabin fever!
3. Marble Painting | Artful Parent
It’s impossible not to laugh and giggle when making marble paintings. Try making this activity a bit more challenging by encouraging your child to use certain color families or create patterns using the marbles.
4. Cardboard Marble Run | Little Bins Little Hands
This is one of my favorite marble activities for kids in elementary school as it requires planning and creativity, and the options really are endless. Your child can use painters tape and tape cardboard tubes to the wall, then watch as they drop marbles down each tube and find out where they are going to land.
5. Traveling Marbles Game | How Stuff Works
This version is a modern twist on the classic shooting marbles game. You’ll need a clear space to play traveling marbles, so you might need to assist your child in moving some furniture out of the way. Once you do, your little one will be busy for chunks of time as they use their hand-eye coordination skills to move marbles across the room.
6. Marble Bowling | Frugal Fun For Boys And Girls
Bowling is fun no matter how you go about it, but when you add marbles, it gets even better. This mini bowling game is another one of my favorite marble activities for kids as it helps develop hand-eye coordination and improves focus and concentration.
7. DIY Foosball Game | Teachers Are Terrific
Foosball is a classic game that kids and adults love. Imagine how much fun your kids are going to have when they can make their own foosball game! Make sure to grab some popsicle sticks for your child to design their own players.
8. Marble Roulette | In Our Dream
This fun game can be played by an individual or in a group. Simply use a rubber band to pull a paper towel taut over the opening of a cup, then begin adding marbles one at a time and see which marble causes the stack to break through!
There you have it: 24 marble activities for kids! I can’t promise that you’ll be begging to be indoors for days at a time, but these activities will certainly be useful in your arsenal against boredom.