Marble Madness – Bear Elective Adventure
I like to spend the first few den meetings of the year working on elective adventures. It is a fun way to kick off the year and, since it is also sign up season for new cubs, it means you don’t have to circle back and repeat them if you pick up new kids the first few months of the year. For the Bear den, one of my favorite electives to do towards the start of the year is Marble Madness. Marble Madness is one of the adventures that is pretty good straight out of the handbook and it has a bit of flexibility for exactly which activities you can do.
For my Pack, Wolf and Bear seem to be the ranks that always pick up the most scouts at sign up nights. This means our Wolf and Bear den are usually busting at the seams the first couple meetings. To help make den meeting activities more manageable with a larger group, I like to break the requirements into stations, split the kids into groups of two or three cubs and let them rotate through the stations. Here is how organized and led Marble Madness for my Bear den.
Materials
Marbles. Lots of marbles. (Amazon) (Hobby Lobby has great prices on marbles! Usually in the Party Supply section)
Large Shooter Marbles (Amazon)
Masking Tape
Classic Lego Blocks
Lego base plates (Amazon)
Opening and Adventure Intro
To kick things off, I ask for a cub to lead the Scout Oath and a different cub to lead the Scout Law. After that, we dive right in by reading the Adventure Snapshot our of the Bear Handbook. We also read through the Marble History from Requirement 1 and Marble Vocabulary from Requirement 3.
If you have confident readers, this is a great time to ask them to take turned reading aloud. You can give each cub a fun history fact or a vocabulary word. It’s a good way to reinforce taking turns and listening to others when it is their turn to speak. It takes a little longer this way, but the cubs are also a bit more engaged.
Finally, I explain the three different games out of the handbook, Ringer, Plums, and Dropsies, and share that the cubs will get to try two of these three games. Last step is to explain the four stations and break the kids into groups of 2 to 4 to rotate through the stations.
Bonus: If you have the budget for it, I highly recommend giving each cub their own mini set of marbles. This means one large shooter and 5 to 10 standard small marbles. The kids seem to keep track of them better when they are THEIR marbles and they loved being able to take them home at the end of the meeting. It was also fun watching the kids pick their favorites and trade with friends. It really added to the excitement of the adventures. The small marbles were easy to find and relatively cheap. I found sets at Hobby Lobby for about $1.50. The only downside is, each set only had one shooter. This means you either buy a full set for each kid or buy a package of just shooters. They are available on Amazon, but can be a bit pricey. The most cost effective option is really going to depend on how many cubs you have.
Station 1 – Ringer
Before the meeting, use making take to create a circle on the ground. If you are outside, sidewalk chalk is even easier. If you have given each cub their own marbles, they will use them here. Otherwise, make sure you have a set of marbles ready to use at this station.
The game starts with 13 marbles in the middle of the circle. They are set out in an X with about 3 inches between the marbles. One player kneels outside the circle and uses a shooter (large marble) to hit the marbles inside the ring. If the player misses, their turn ends. If they hit a marble and it stays int he ring, they get to go again and shoot from where their shooter stopped. If they hit a marble and it goes out of the ring, the take that marble and their turn ends.
The next player goes and repeats these these steps. This continues until time is up or all the marbles have been knocked out of the ring. The player with the most marbles at the end wins. If there is time before they have to rotate to the next station, players can start a new game.
Station 2 – Plums
Before the meeting starts, draw two straight lines with masking tape about 6 feet apart. To start the game, each player takes two or three marbles and sets them out on the line. These are the plums. All of the plums should be lined up a few inches apart. The players all line up behind the opposite line and take turns shooting one marble to try to knock the plums off the line. If they knock any plums off the line, they take it. Play continues until time is up or all plums have been knocked off the line. The player with the most plums at the end of the game wins.
Station 3 – Marble Maze
At this station, cubs work to build a marble maze using Lego blocks and a base plate. Mazes can be as simple or complex as they cubs want. You may need to remind them a few times that the maze path needs to be wide enough to fit their marble. When they are done, they should test their maze to make sure they can get their marble from start to finish be lifting and tilting their base plate. If there is time, the cubs can trade mazes and take turns using each of the mazes. For an added challenge, use a timer to see how long it takes to successfully complete the maze. Who can get through the mazes the fastest? Who made the most challenging maze to navigate?
Station 4 – Marble Run
For this station, you can either have the cubs each build their own maze or work together to build one large marble maze. Or you can give them the choice. You can challenge them to build the tallest maze or just let them loose to be creative builder. One they have built their marble run, they can take turns with their marbles to see which one is the fastest on each of the tracks. This station is usually just fun chaos of building and play.
Wrap Up
If you have the time and materials, you can also allow the cubs to make a marble bag to keep their marbles in. This can be sewn with the instructions in the Bear Handbook. You could also opt to use fleece or felt, cut out circles, and the weave a string through holes to make a simple cinch bag. If you want want an even simpler bag, get pre-made cloth favor bags they can decorate with sharpies or paint pens. This is an optional activities for the adventures, so you can also skip it all together.
Congratulations. You made it through the Marble Madness Bear Elective!
