Nature Games: Marble Run
A friend of ours has a game my daughter never tires of: a marble run. It’s the first thing she asks for whenever we visit. She loves putting the pieces together, dropping the marbles into the hole at the top and watching them make their way down through the tubes.
This week in the backyard we seemed to have an abundance of bark, so I suggested we make our own marble run using macadamia nuts. I showed Little Miss 3 how the nut would roll down if she propped one end of the bark against a tree, and that was all the encouragement she needed. She found extra bark to add at the bottom to keep the nut rolling. There was a lot of trial and error, and occasional moments of frustration, but overall we had a fun time outdoors playing (and learning).
Many commercial games today have their roots in the great outdoors. Some games have exceptionally long histories, with evidence dating back thousands of years. Children (and adults) played games long before the development of checkers, or chess pieces, or monopoly counters or marbles. Before there was cardboard, boardgames were simply scratched out in the dirt. And nature provides plenty of “counters” in the form of pebbles, nuts, berries and more.
An easy game to try in the backyard is noughts and crosses. Scratch the grid out in the dirt, but use rocks and leaves (or whatever’s around) as counters and try to get three in a row. If you have older kids you might like to have a go at mancala style games using holes in the dirt and small stones.
Do you have any other suggestions for outdoor boardgames?
As long as there is not a real life game of snakes and ladders!
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The 3-5 year old children in my child care centre loved the marble run game too. What a great outdoor interpretation, I am sure you will be creating nut runs for many, many days to come.
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hopscotch and fly are also quick fun yard games, but probably not a traditional board game, but now everything come in a packet.
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Brilliant! A barky nut run! I love it.
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I’ve sat and thougth about this Catherine and I have nothing – sorry! Your idea of the outdoor marble run is extremely creative. We own a marble run which I picked up in a fill a bag for $2 deal at an op shop. It is greatly loved in our house, especially when Daddy plays too. He helps to make the best ones. Can’t wait to hear more outdoor ideas.
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I can remember playing “How many eggs in the Basket?” on a very pebbly beach. Basically you start with 5-10 eggs (stones) and one person holds a number in their hand if the other person guesses how many they get your eggs (stones) otherwise you keep them. This is how I remember playing it.
That’s a good one Jillian. We could play that with macadamia nuts!
Awesome! Love the idea of a nut run, using the bark was a good idea! I love how imaginative kids are they can find a game in anything they do.