Turn a cardboard box into a fun ball maze! This is a great hand-eye coordination game for kids, as well as an awesome boredom buster since you probably have all these materials on hand.

Make a Ball Maze Game! Hand-eye coordination activity for kids

This game is similar to our cardboard box labyrinth, but with a lower frustration level for young kids. Preschoolers will enjoy rolling the ball through the tubes, while older kids might enjoy adding a game element to this activity.

This ball maze game is super simple to make!

You will need:

  • A cardboard box
  • Cardboard tubes – ours are paper towel rolls
  • Duct tape in a variety of colors
  • A bouncy ball

First, prepare your box. You will want a smooth surface for the ball to roll on. My husband cut the flaps off the top of the box and simply laid them in the bottom of the box and taped them in place. This created a nice flat bottom.

Ball Maze Game

Then we cut the paper towel rolls in thirds and wrapped each one in a different color of duct tape. Each paper towel roll is attached to the box with a loop of duct tape.

Ball Maze Game

We tried a ping pong ball first, but it didn’t quite fit through the tubes. A bouncy ball works perfectly!

Make a Ball Maze Game - Great for hand-eye coordination!

Turn the ball maze into a challenge game by adding cards that match the colors of duct tape. I just stuck pieces of each color of tape to some index cards.

Make a Ball Maze Game

Set up a challenge by choosing a few cards (we did 3-4). Then try to roll the ball through those colored tubes in the correct order. It’s not as easy as it looks! Fun challenge!

Make a Ball Maze Game

The boys enjoyed challenging each other to get the ball to go through the pink tube because it was the most difficult. The easiest tubes are the ones on the edges of the box.

This project was inspired by the marble maze on Creative Connections for Kids. Her post also has several creative activities to go with the book Press Here. You’ll want to check it out!

If you have bigger kids, stop by our Cardboard Box Labyrinth. This is one of our all-time favorite projects for kids age 8+.

6 Comments

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  1. Beng Mangubat Nov 10, 2016

    Thank you very much for sharing this idea. I already made a smaller version because we only have a smaller carton. I was able to add 5 carton tubes and it is already challenging to my 6-year old daughter. :)

    Reply
  2. ebru Nov 25, 2016

    This is really a great idea. Thank you very much.

    Reply
  3. Pizza Nov 26, 2016

    Very cool and looks easy to make ?HAVE FUN WITH THE MAZE❤️️

    Reply
  4. ... Aug 27, 2017

    Cool

    Reply
  5. Cheerymom Apr 17, 2018

    You are awesome as always ! We love frugalfun4boys! Thanks for inspiring ! Here I'm right away picking up my cardboard box to prep this game for my son :)

    Reply
  6. bonnie Feb 15, 2023

    We have done this once already for a stem night at our library. Each design was totally different from the others. We are getting ready to do it again. We will see what happens this time.

    Reply

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