A couple of nights ago we had a Pack Night where the theme was Marble Madness. It was great fun for all involved. Here's what we did. 
We started off with our pre-opener making marble art. It's so simple. It can be done in lots of different ways. We chose to keep it really simple. Start out with cardboard flats from your local grocery story. Put in a piece of regular copy paper 2-3 marbles (it's fun if one is a shooter) and 2-3 colors of acrylic paint (you can get this at any craft store). Simply drop 1 dime size drop of each color on the sheet of paper. It doesn't really matter where you drop the paint. It often looks easier to spread the paint and cover the white if they're spread out in a triangle shape. Have the artist tilt the box to roll the marbles through the paint to spread it around and mix the colors. Once they're done set it aside to dry (takes about 15-20 minutes.)
We don't do much singing but opted to share a song we had just learned at our district Cub Scout Belt Loop Camp. It's called Oh, I Wish I Were - sung to the tune of "If You're Happy and You Know It". Here are the words:
Oh I wish I were a
little hunk of mud, (HUNK OF MUD) - echo
Under everybody's shoey,
Oh I wish I were a little hunk of mud, (HUNK OF MUD)
I'd be ooey, ooey, gooey
Under everybody's shoey,
Oh I wish I were a little hunk of mud. (HUNK OF MUD)
Oh I wish I were a
little stripe –ed skunk, (STRIPE – ED SKUNK)
Oh I wish I were a little stripe –ed skunk, (STRIPE – ED SKUNK)
I'd sit up in the treezies
And perfume all the breezies
Oh I wish I were a little stripe –ed skunk, (STRIPE – ED SKUNK)
Oh I wish I were a
little bar of soap, (BAR OF SOAP)
Oh I wish I were a little bar of soap, (BAR OF SOAP)
I’d go slippy, slippy, slidey
Over Everybody's Hidey
Oh I wish I were a little bar of soap, (BAR OF SOAP)
Oh I
wish I was a little radio (radio)
For our activity we broke up into 3 areas which rotated between every 10 minutes:
I've attached the pattern for these. They need to be copied on cardstock. The secret to making these is to keep the sides straight. The marble has to be able to move back and forth for it to tumble. Again, we kept this really simple. We had the patterns cut out so we the youth would have lots of time to race. We used a 8 foot banquet table with one leg folded down covered with a sheet for our ramp. (The sheet provides just enough friction to keep it from sliding straight down). The kids folded their own and then glued them with a glue stick (liquid works okay but often bubbles the paper and takes a while to dry). Once they're dry (about 1 minute) go over and race away. We just had a free-for-all but organized races would have been fun as well.
If you're racer is working correctly it should go down the ramp like the illustration shows. If it doesn't it's likely one of these reasons: 1 - not enough friction or 2 - the marble doesn't move freely inside the casing. Kids of all ages get a kick out of seeing something so simple work.
Ringer - A Marble Game
Ringer is probably the most well known marble game. Sadly, kids these days don't play marbles like they used to. (I have actually not ever played marbles except for Cub Scouts either). Due to our time constraints we played a simplified version of the game. It also helped that we had been working on the new Cub Scout Marble Adventure for several weeks so the boys had some idea how to shoot their marbles. Here are the rules for the game:
For this game we used blankets and towels to make a perimeter (so we didn't have marble
everywhere). Inside the boundary we put all sorts of things that the youth could try and hit when they shot their marble. Each item had a point value. The youth had to decide if they wanted to go for items that were close but low in point value or go for a difficult target that would get lots of points.
To finish off the night we closed with a Cubmaster's minute (How to Treat People - see below) that went along with the core value - Compassion. We then gave the youth a Good Turn coin and explained how it worked. We challenged the youth to put the coin in their right pocket. At some point they would do a good turn and move their coin to their left pocket. Each night they should place it on their dresser and start over the next morning putting the coin in their right pocket.
What would a Pack Night be without refreshments? Since our Pack Night was held on St. Patrick's Day we served Chocolate Mint ice cream. Our other idea was doughnut holes.
Here's a few links so you don't have to re-invent the wheel:
Oh I wish I was a little radio (radio)
I’d turn off with a click
For our activity we broke up into 3 areas which rotated between every 10 minutes:
- Marble Racers
- Ringer - A Marble Game
- Marble Alley
I've attached the pattern for these. They need to be copied on cardstock. The secret to making these is to keep the sides straight. The marble has to be able to move back and forth for it to tumble. Again, we kept this really simple. We had the patterns cut out so we the youth would have lots of time to race. We used a 8 foot banquet table with one leg folded down covered with a sheet for our ramp. (The sheet provides just enough friction to keep it from sliding straight down). The kids folded their own and then glued them with a glue stick (liquid works okay but often bubbles the paper and takes a while to dry). Once they're dry (about 1 minute) go over and race away. We just had a free-for-all but organized races would have been fun as well. If you're racer is working correctly it should go down the ramp like the illustration shows. If it doesn't it's likely one of these reasons: 1 - not enough friction or 2 - the marble doesn't move freely inside the casing. Kids of all ages get a kick out of seeing something so simple work.
Ringer - A Marble Game
Ringer is probably the most well known marble game. Sadly, kids these days don't play marbles like they used to. (I have actually not ever played marbles except for Cub Scouts either). Due to our time constraints we played a simplified version of the game. It also helped that we had been working on the new Cub Scout Marble Adventure for several weeks so the boys had some idea how to shoot their marbles. Here are the rules for the game:
- Draw a ring (a large circle – usually about 5 to 10 feet across) and put 13 marbles in it . The marbles should be in a cross and spaced 3 inches apart.
- Each player shoots in turn from outside the circle, trying to hit a marble out of the ring while keeping his shooter inside the ring.
- If the shooter has a miss, his turn is over and he picks up the shooter.
- If the shooter has a hit but the shooter also rolls out of the ring, he keeps the marbles that rolled out and his turn is over.
- If the shooter has a hit and the shooter stays in the ring then player shoots again from the place where the shooter stayed.
- On each new turn a player shoots from anywhere outside the ring.
- The person who collects the most marbles is the winner.
For this game we used blankets and towels to make a perimeter (so we didn't have marble
To finish off the night we closed with a Cubmaster's minute (How to Treat People - see below) that went along with the core value - Compassion. We then gave the youth a Good Turn coin and explained how it worked. We challenged the youth to put the coin in their right pocket. At some point they would do a good turn and move their coin to their left pocket. Each night they should place it on their dresser and start over the next morning putting the coin in their right pocket.
What would a Pack Night be without refreshments? Since our Pack Night was held on St. Patrick's Day we served Chocolate Mint ice cream. Our other idea was doughnut holes.
Here's a few links so you don't have to re-invent the wheel:
- Marble Madness Pack Night Outline
- Oh, I Wish I Were Song
- Marble Racer Pattern
- How To Treat People Cubmaster's Minute
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