How to Make a Marble Run for Earth Day

Your children will have fun moving a marble from one side of their paper plate marble run to the other. It will be equally fun to get the marble to go around as many of the lids and tops as possible. This marble run features recycled objects used as obstacles. You probably have many of them in your recycling bin at home. Learning how to make marble run will be as much fun as it will be to explore on Earth Day or any day really.

Gathering the Materials for the Earth Day Marble Run

Paper Plates
Lids and Plastic Bottle Tops with Holes in the Center of Them
Brass Fasteners
Pencil
Scissors
Marbles

How to Make the Marble Run

First, you will need to decide where you want place the bottle top and lids on your plate. Once you have them placed where you want them, you will need to trace the lids onto the plates. That will help you remember where you want them to be on the plate. You can erase the pencil outlines as you attach each of the lids and tops.

Second, you will need to attach the lids and tops to the paper plate with a brass fastener. While you could glue them onto the plate, you would not be able to move them to a new location. After doing a test run, you may decide that you need to move some of the lids or tops to a new location.

Third, you will need to test out the marble fun. Before starting the test, you will need to decide which end of the plate will be the starting place and which will be the ending place. Then you will try tilting the plate to get the marble around the obstacles and to the other side. The starting place and ending place can change from one run to the next if you want it to.

Building Background Knowledge About Earth Day

If you are going to learn how to build a marble run on Earth Day, you may want to read a book about Earth Day with your children. Below you will find a wonderful collection of Earth Day-themed books.

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