🛠️Fun at-home craft: DIY Cardboard Marble Maze (Ages 5–12 + parent)

Grab a parent and lets get building

You don’t need screen time to have fun.  Turning ideas into reality cannot only be fun but teach you how to use cool tools, solve problems and plan ahead.  Not to mention the great memories you will have with Mom and Dad.  If you need a place to start, try this cardboard marble maze.  Fun to build and fun to play with.

Materials needed

Material you will need to find

  • A shallow cardboard box lid (shoe box lid works great)📦
  • Paper straws (or cardboard strips / popsicle sticks)
  • Masking tape (or painter’s tape)
  • Marker
  • Scissors (adult use/supervision)✂️
  • Marbles (or small bouncy balls / beads)
  • Optional: stickers, washable paint, small paper cup (for a “goal”), a ruler

Step-by-step instructions

Draw your path

  1. Pick your base
    • Use a box lid as your “maze tray.” If it’s flimsy, tape a second piece of cardboard underneath.
  2. Plan the maze
    • With a marker, draw a START area and a FINISH area.
    • Sketch a winding path with a few turns (wide turns for younger kids, tighter for older kids).
      (See picture: Step 1)
  3. Make the walls
    • Cut paper straws into short pieces (2–6 inches).
    • Lay straw pieces along your drawn lines to form walls.
  4. Tape everything down
    • Tape the ends and middle of each straw piece so it’s firmly stuck.
    • Press the tape down well so marbles can’t slip underneath.
      (See picture: Step 2)
  5. Test and tweak
    • Drop in a marble and tilt the box lid to guide it from START to FINISH.
    • If the marble gets stuck, widen that section or shorten a wall.
  6. Decorate + add challenges (optional)
    • Add “lava zones” (don’t touch), tunnels (tape a straw over the path), or checkpoints.
    • Put a small paper cup at the end as the “goal.”

Tape down your walls

One more thing….

HAVE FUN!  See how fast you can beat the maze. Make it a family challenge.  Winner picks what you have for dinner.

Make it work for different ages

  • Age 5–7: Fewer walls, wider lanes, one simple route.
  • Age 8–10: Add dead ends, switchbacks, and a couple “must-pass” checkpoints.
  • Age 11–12: Add timed challenges, a score system, or multiple routes with different difficulty.

Safety note

Marbles can be a choking hazard—keep close supervision with younger kids and tidy up after play.