Get your engineering skills going by making a marble run from cardboard tubes.
After a great fun activity using cardboard tubes to roll paint, we were left with some interesting looking cardboard tubes and decided we could use them for another craft. A few days later, the cardboard tube marble run was created.
What You Need to Make a Marble Run
- Cardboard tubes (you’ll need some long ones as well as a few shorter toilet roll tubes)
- Paint if you want to decorate the tubes.
- Scissors
- Marbles
How to Make a Marble Run
- Collect a selection of cardboard tubes.
- Plan out your run, as the marble will start at the top and need to fall to different levels.
- Cut a wedge out of the side of your first tallest tube and insert a half length of another tube. You’ll need to make sure it’s pushed right through so the marble drops onto it and doesn’t fall all the way down.
- Keep creating runs until you run out of cardboard tubes or enough height.
Play by dropping a marble in the top and watching it runs down the different tubes. It takes a bit of patience to get it right and I was really impressed that my kids persevered until we had the levels just right and the marbles running freely.
