Losing Your Marbles

[15 Minutes]

Here’s a game that is fun to play all by yourself, with a friend, or at a birthday party with lots of people. You can play indoors or out at the beach and you’re recycling at the same time!

You'll need:

• at least one 2 liter soda bottle • one marble per bottle • one sharp knife (adult only) • one black marker

What to do:

1. If possible, print out these directions. Read them through with your child before you begin.
2. With your child, gather everything you'll need.
3. Let your child take the plastic cap off of the soda bottle and recycle it.
4. Challenge your child to draw a dotted mark around the circumference of the bottle, approximately ½ way up the length of the bottle.
5. Encourage your child to watch, as you carefully slice the plastic bottle on the dotted line, so that the bottle is cut fairly evenly in half.
6. Instruct your child to invert the top half of the bottle into the bottom half, so that the end with the small hole points inside and toward the base of the bottom half.

How to play:

1. Each player places their marble into the small hole so that it rests inside the base of the bottle.
2. After saying, “Ready, set, go!,” everyone tries to remove their marble simply by shaking the bottle.
3. The first person to remove their marble is the winner.
4. Here are some variations:

   Play by yourself with a timer and try to beat your previous score.
   
   Everyone continue after the previous player’s marble comes out, until there is only one person left. Have that person pay a previously determined penalty (walk like a chicken, moo like a cow while hopping on one leg, etc.)

Let's Talk: Ideas to Explore Together.

• What is the object of this game?
• How many people do you think can play this game?
• Where else could we play this game?