Paper Plate Marble Maze

Here are three creative ways to make a paper plate marble maze!

This is a fantastic STEM challenge for kids, and the materials are so simple. Use this paper plate marble maze activity for a rainy day at home, or set it up for your STEM class, club, or library program. The process of constructing the maze and testing out different paths is very engaging for kids. Then when their maze is completed, it’s fun to play with! A great hand-eye coordination activity!

We’re going to show you three ways to build a paper plate marble maze:

• Straws
• Modeling clay
• Paper strips

All of them are creative, easy for kids to do on their own, and lots of fun!

Supplies Needed:

• Paper plates
• Plastic plates – optional, we liked using these for the modeling clay version because it’s easy to un-stick the clay and move it around
• Paper or plastic straws
• Modeling clay
• Paper
• Scissors
• Hot glue gun – we used a low-temp glue gun
• Or, craft glue such as Tacky Glue or Elmer’s white glue

TIP: If you want to avoid hot glue, go with any type of plates and clay; paper plates, paper strips, and craft glue; or paper straws and craft glue. Craft glue won’t work well if you use plastic plates with plastic straws, or paper plates with plastic straws.

STRAWS AND PLATES

There are different ways to approach this! Choose a starting point and an ending point first, and then build your maze. Or, create an interesting maze design and then decide where the start and finish will be!

Kids will definitely want to test the maze as they build. Roll the marble through what you have so far to check for narrow spots where the marble can’t fit through, etc.

When the maze is complete, tilt the plate to roll the marble through the maze. This is a great challenge for kids and great for coordination!

MODELING CLAY MAZE

You can use modeling clay from the craft section at the store, but another option is to use play dough! One benefit of modeling clay is that it won’t dry out, crack, and come off the plate. However, clay is harder for young kids to manipulate because it’s not nearly as soft. I would recommend play dough for young kids (5 – 7 or so) and clay for the 8 and up crowd.

Roll the clay into “snakes” and then create a path for the maze.

One huge benefit to clay over straws is that you can make changes! Once you glue the straws down, it’s hard to change the maze, but a clay maze can be adjusted many times.

Here’s another way to make a maze with clay. The path is simpler, but it’s fun to roll the marble around the curves. Each kid will approach this project a little differently!

PAPER STRIPS

Here’s a third way to make a paper plate marble maze! Use strips of paper to make little tunnels to roll a marble through.

Number the tunnels and see if kids can roll the marble through each tunnel in order 1 – 5. This is a fun challenge that takes some practice.