Aggie, catseye, bumble bee, turtle, purie, and steely all refer to types of marbles with each name denoting the coloring, pattern, or material of the little sphere. Taws are the marbles used to shoot other marbles that are called ducks. Taw, eggs in the bush, and picking plums are among the most familiar marble games.
One US factory, Marble King, manufactures one million marbles a day. That’s lots of potential fun. Here are some ideas to create your own activities.
Marble Relays
Hold a spoon race where players use spoons to scoop up a marble, run to a finish line, drop the marble in a container and run back for the next player to go.
Try a sliding marble relay. Give each player an empty paper towel tube. Players must pass the marble along by sliding it through the tube into the next person’s tube. If a player drops the marble, that player must pick it up and retry sliding it to the next player.
Target Contests
Line up the ducks (small marbles). Draw a line in the dirt and try to shoot the marbles to land on the line. Player who lines up the most ducks is the winner.
Draw a bull’s-eye target and assign points for each ring, with inner ring the highest score. Toss or shoot marbles from a line a few feet away from target and see who scores the highest.
Use an egg carton and label each eggcup with a number. Toss marbles into the carton and see who scores the highest.
Cut arches from the side of a shoebox and label each for a point score. Turn box upside down and shoot marbles to roll them inside arches. Score according to number marked over opening marble enters.
Guessing Games
Fill a jar with marbles and see who comes closest to guessing number of marbles.
Play Where’s the marble. "It" hides a marble in his fist while holding hands behind back and then holds hands out for second player to guess which hand has the marble. When correctly identified the second player gets to be ‘It’ and hides the marble. Play variations with guessing number of marbles in hand or color of marble.
Marble Mazes and Races
Cut open tubes from empty toilet paper rolls and plastic bottles. Glue magnets to ends of one outer side of each open tube and also to the back of a small paper cup. Stick tubes to front of refrigerator to form a maze where a marble can roll from one tube into the next. Stick the paper cup at the end of the maze. Then drop the marble at the top and watch it go. Reconfigure the maze as desired.
Create a track for a rolling marble race. Cut a long empty gift-wrap roll in half to form a race track. Tape a few tracks together. Elevate one end of tracks with a book or other object. Drop marbles at high end of tracks and let marbles run down. hold races to see which marble runs through a track faster. Or, use thumb tacks and a bulletin board to create the maze.
Make an individual marble maze in a box. Cut down all sides of a box to a 3-inch height, or use a lid from a box of case of copy paper. Glue small boxes and empty toilet paper rolls to bottom of lid/box to form a maze. Get marble to roll from start to finish point of the course by flicking marble through or (with a small enough box) tilting the box to roll marble. Time players to find the fastest maze navigator.
Edutainment
Rolling and shooting marbles in games develops eye-hand coordination. Designing mazes and tracks taps into the imagination. Group relays develop social skills of cooperation and sportsmanship. Guessing how many marbles in a container and figuring out how much pressure to apply to hit a target involve math and spatial relationship skills. Learning is easy when it’s combined with pleasure.
