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Bottles Up Carnival Game Rental | Central PA and MD

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Stand a bottle carnival game~ how to do it…..😅

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How to make NBA Basketball Board Game using Cardboard

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How to make Pinball game from cardboard Board Game Pinball for two players

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How to make Basketball Board Game from Cardboard DIY at Home

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Easiest Diy Cardboard Game for kids #diy #craft 🔥🔥🔥🤪👌

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Here's a fun craft and engineering challenge that is SO fun for kids! Challenge kids to design and build their own cardboard carnival games that really work.

This is fun to do on a rainy day at home, and it would also be fun to try with a group or class. Kids will have a blast building their own cardboard carnival games and then trying out the games built by others!

This project is part arts and crafts and part engineering. Kids will need to think about creating an attractive design, and also about how the game will function. Great skills for real life! This is what toy and game designers do.

We had a fun time doing this Cardboard Carnival Games Challenge as a family. It was a fun way to spend a Saturday!

We can't wait to show you the games we built!
Getting Ready for the Challenge
Setting up this building challenge is quite easy. Just raid your recycling bin and craft closet for some basic supplies! Here are some suggestions, but truly you can use whatever you have.

Cardboard boxes, like shipping boxes

Cereal boxes

Toilet paper and paper towel rolls

Craft sticks

Bamboo skewers

Paper cups

Index cards

String

Hot glue

Clear tape

Duct tape

Paint/markers

Ping pong balls or similar

Felt

Here's what we created: Ping Pong Basketball
We cut the bottom off of a plastic cup to make the basket.

The post for the basket is a cardboard tube that came from a package of plastic wrap. The backboard is a piece of cardboard from a food package.

To play, either toss the ball into the basket, or bounce it off the table and into the basket. We liked both ways equally well.
Plinko Game
This will take you right back to memories of The Price is Right, haha!

This game is so easy to build. We glued small paper cups to a cardboard box that we brought home on our most recent Costco trip.

We cut an opening in the top of the box so there is space to drop in the ping pong ball.

And then we used the cardboard that we cut off the top of the box to make compartments for the ball to land in at the bottom.

This project has some good engineering considerations for kids to think through. How far apart do the cups need to be so that the ping pong ball can bounce down, but not get stuck? How many rows of cups do you need in order for the game to last long enough to be fun? In which compartment is the ball most likely to land?
Prize Spinner
My 12 year old built this almost entirely by himself! And it spins so well.

We used cardboard, a bamboo skewer, and a couple of paper towel rolls. And paint and hot glue. And that was it!

Here's an angle that shows the construction of this game. The two paper towel rolls are glued together at the top of the lower roll. We also put glue around the skewer just behind the upper paper towel roll to keep it from coming off.

My son made sure that all of the pieces worked together before gluing anything. He could tell that we were going to need something to keep the spinner from spinning right off the bamboo skewer. I helped him cut a small circle of cardboard to glue on the skewer that would stay in place and keep the spinner on.

The other main engineering consideration with this project was to figure out how to add an arrow for the spinner. We decided to add a second paper towel roll with a cardboard arrow on top of that. The bamboo skewer runs through both, and then we added some glue to keep the second paper towel roll upright.
Ball Toss Game
This one was built by my 9 year old. He did a great job!

Again, with this game you can either toss the ball into the cups or bounce it on the table first.

Kids will need to determine how to space the cups so that the game is fun and the ball doesn't get stuck between the cups.
Bean Bag Toss
This is a great game for younger kids to build! My 7 year old made this one with some help from Dad. She wanted a corn hole style bean bag game.

We made this game from a cardboard box. My husband cut the top off and then used hot glue to attach another piece of cardboard at an angle. Then he cut the holes with an X-Acto knife (adult job!) and Janie painted it.

We made some easy and cute no-sew bean bags from felt and hot glue.

Janie traced a small plastic cup to get a nice round shape out of felt. She cut out two circles of each color.

Then I helped her assemble the bean bags by hot gluing the edges. We filled them with rice.

So fun! Be sure to match the size of your bean bags to the size of your holes, or vice versa. Then have fun playing!

Have fun designing and creating cardboard carnival games! Here are some other game ideas that might be fun to try.
Need more easy STEM challenges?
Head over to see 30+ Engineering Challenges with Simple Materials!

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Cardboard Carnival Games {Challenge for Kids} - Frugal Fun For Boys and Girls

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Here's a fun craft and engineering challenge that is SO fun for kids! Challenge kids to design and build their own cardboard carnival games that really work. This is fun to do on a rainy day at home, and it would also be fun to try with a group or class.

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Marbles and Play Dough STEM Challenge - Frugal Fun For Boys and Girls

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Build a marble run with an unlikely material… play dough! There are actually two STEM challenges with marbles and play dough in this post, and they are both a ton of fun for a wide range of ages. Best of all, the materials are cheap and can be used again on another day. Here’s a […]

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STEM Challenge for Kids: Build a Hexbug Maze Using Straws

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In this STEM challenge, kids will create a Hexbug maze using straws, tape, and posterboard! It’s a super easy STEM activity to set up and gives children the opportunity to plan, build, and problem solve. Follow our STEM and STEAM Activities for Kids Pinterest board! In my most recent science class for first grade and…

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Use cardboard, craft sticks, and hot glue to create an epic marble run! The marbles land in paper cups at the bottom of the track. This is a fantastic engineering challenge for kids. How should we position the sticks? Which path will the marbles take? How many will land in each cup?

As always, make sure that the kids playing with the marble run are not putting the marbles in their mouths!

Aidan and I built this marble track, and then the younger kids have been enjoying playing with it. Owen was going to help us, but he got distracted building castles out of the extra paper cups - very typical!

Want to see it in action?

We started with cardboard sheets that my husband had cut from our IKEA sofa box. Then all we needed were craft sticks, scissors, hot glue, paper cups, and duct tape.

We taped strips of cardboard to the sides to keep the marbles from rolling off. I cut the rims off the cups before gluing them to the cardboard so that the marbles would roll smoothly into the cups.

Then we glued craft sticks to the cardboard with hot glue. We did two sections with little short sticks to make it sort of like the Plink-O game. It worked great! We weren't sure how much of an incline we were going to want for our marble run, but leaning it against the couch worked perfectly.

We put our ottoman behind the couch for the younger ones to stand on, and they had a great time sending marbles down the track. Janie and Jonathan worked together for a long time loading up the container, then sending them all down, then loading up the container again.

And of course someone had to pour the whole bucket of marbles down at one time to see what would happen!

Even though we felt like our sticks were evenly spaced, the cups at the bottom told a different story! You can see that the red sticks at the bottom diverted marbles away from the fourth cup.

Some marbles did roll between the cups. We had little balls of tin foil blocking the holes, but Janie was very bothered by them and pulled them all out. Just know that that is an option! Cotton balls would probably work well too.

I would love to try this project in a classroom setting with different teams of kids building their own track! Hmm, maybe I should think about that at our church's homeschool co-op...
We love marble runs! Here are some of our other favorite marble runs to build: The BEST Marble Run Projects for Kids

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Turn a Cardboard Box into an Epic Marble Run - Frugal Fun For Boys and Girls

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Use cardboard, craft sticks, and hot glue to create an epic marble run! The marbles land in paper cups at the bottom of the track. This is a fantastic engineering challenge for kids. How should we position the sticks? Which path will the marbles take? How many will land in each cup?

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Here's a fun STEM challenge: Build working gears out of plastic caps, popsicle sticks, and a cardboard box! This project demonstrates mechanical concepts using materials you probably already have. Kids will be able to explore how gears mesh together to create motion.

We started our project with a sturdy Amazon prime box, an assortment of plastic lids, popsicle sticks, scissors, and hot glue. I used mini popsicle sticks, but regular ones will work fine. The ones we used are the same width as regular popsicle sticks, but not as wide as craft sticks.

(By the way, I have an assortment of photos of materials spread out like this that never make it onto the blog... sometimes I have these crazy ideas, and they don't work out. So I don't post those. But this project is lots of fun! Just thought I'd point out that I don't hit on a good idea every time... ha ha!)

We made our gears to have 8 teeth. It's easy to glue the popsicle stick segments to a plastic lid, and if you use low-temp glue guns, kids can do it themselves.

I glued small water bottle caps to the tops of the lids to make the gears easier to hang onto and turn. One of them has a nail through the cap - I'll explain more about that in a minute.

The way the gears work is that there are smaller caps glued to the box itself. Then the gears sit on top of those. This allows the gears to turn, but they can't scoot very far from side to side. Jonathan suggested that we just glue the gears down to the box, but then he quickly realized why that wouldn't work. These are good projects to do to develop thinking skills!

You can explore how gears can be used to change the direction of motion by mounting one on the side of the box. I used a hammer to drive the nail through the lid (adult job) and then poked a hole in the box. Yes, the sharp point of the nail sticks out on the other side, but I wouldn't recommend doing this project with young kids anyway. Best for ages 5 and older.

The gears are not sturdy enough to have more then 3 or 4 in a sequence. Four gets a little tricky at times because there's just not enough torque to turn that final gear. Three gears work well. We glued down more than 3 caps so that the kids could experiment with the position of the gears.
We love doing STEM challenges with supplies from around the house! Here are some more of our favorite ideas:

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Build Working Gears out of Popsicle Sticks - Frugal Fun For Boys and Girls

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Here's a fun STEM challenge: Build working gears out of plastic caps, popsicle sticks, and a cardboard box! This project demonstrates mechanical concepts using materials you probably already have. Kids will be able to explore how gears mesh together to create motion. We started our project with a sturdy Amazon prime box, an assortment of [...]

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STEM challenge for kids - build a catapult out of popsicle sticks!

Here's a fun (and effective) catapult to build out of popsicle sticks, hot glue, and a few other basic household supplies. We've been having a blast with this little contraption!

The catapult's arm is attached to a segment of a straw that rotates around a bamboo skewer. To shoot the catapult, hold down the frame with one hand while firmly (and quickly!) pressing down the arm with the other hand.

This may be the most effective catapult we have ever built. It shoots really far!
Here's what you need to make one:
We have been shooting Nerf Rival balls with our catapults, and they work great! They are super lightweight, yet still fun. If you don't have any of those, pom pom balls work just as well. If you want something with a little more power to it, we also had good success with small wooden beads. (Just be safe, okay?)

Step 1: Grab 6 sticks and warm up the glue gun. I actually used some mini popsicle sticks for my instruction photos and then made a catapult with full size popsicle sticks afterwards. The process is the same. I think I like the full size popsicle stick catapult better, but both of them work well!

Step 2: Make two triangles by gluing three craft sticks together. Then grab a straw and a bamboo skewer.

Step 3: Cut a piece from the bamboo skewer. Then cut a shorter segment from the straw.

Step 4: Hot glue the skewer to each of the triangles.

Step 5: Glue a couple of sticks to the base of the catapult for stability.

Step 6: Glue a wide craft stick to the straw to create the shooting arm of the catapult.

Step 7: Cut a paper cup so that there is just an inch or two left at the bottom. Glue a second wide craft stick to the catapult and then glue on the cup.

Now you're ready to try it out! Here's the larger version that I created out of regular size popsicle sticks.

If you use full size popsicle sticks (the size I linked to in the supply list), you'll need to add one more stick across the front of the catapult. Kids can experiment with the position of this final stick so that it stops the shooting arm at the best position for launching the ball.
Need more STEM ideas? Have fun tinkering!

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Build a Powerful Popsicle Stick Catapult - Frugal Fun For Boys and Girls

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STEM challenge for kids - build a catapult out of popsicle sticks! Here's a fun (and effective) catapult to build out of popsicle sticks, hot glue, and a few other basic household supplies. We've been having a blast with this little contraption! The catapult's arm is attached to a segment of a straw that rotates [...]

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Turn an empty tissue box into a fun catapult! This engineering challenge is a great rainy day project for kids, and great for STEM learning too.
This fun little catapult can be built in just a few minutes, and it shoots 8-10 feet! Far enough to be cool, but not enough power to hurt someone. We found this idea in Family Fun magazine several years ago and decided to build another one with the younger kids. The basic catapult design doesn't shoot super well - look for an important tip in the instructions.
Here's what you need to build one:

An empty tissue box

3 pencils - unsharpened is best

Rubber bands

Hole punch

A plastic cap

1 pipe cleaner

Scissors

Hot glue gun

Step 1: Start by cutting the opening of your tissue box a little larger, like this.

Step 2: Use a rubber band to attach two pencils so that they make a cross. Then use a hole punch to make holes on either side of the box. Insert the pencils. You may need to use a sharpened pencil or a pen to make the holes a little larger.

Step 3: Attach a rubber band to the end of the pencil. We used a knot like you would do on a luggage tag. We also attached two rubber bands since ours were short.

Step 4: Make a little hole on the end of the box and pull the rubber band through.

Step 5: Stick the pipe cleaner through the loop of rubber band and then tape it to secure it to the box. Otherwise, the tension on the rubber band will pull it back through! Now the catapult has rubber band power!

Step 6: Use hot glue to attach a plastic cap to the pencil.

This is what the catapult looks like when it's just sitting there.

To shoot it, you need to pull the arm down like this:

Now if you stop here, the catapult will shoot, but since the shooting arm is pointed down toward the ground when it releases the projectile it doesn't go very far! We added another pencil to stop the shooting arm at a better angle.

We experimented a little bit with the third pencil. Taping it directly to the box didn't work because of the tension of the shooting arm. The best bet was to attach it to the other pencil with duct tape.

Owen had fun shooting square LEGO bricks. Yes, they are hard but they don't launch with enough power to hurt anyone. Pom pom balls would also work, but since they are so lightweight they won't go as far.

This picture just cracks me up!
Make it an experiment!
Test how far different projectiles travel! Have kids gather different objects to shoot, measure the results, and compare them with a graph. Try experimenting with the tension of the rubber band. Or try finding a better position for the shooting arm.
More things that shoot and launch:

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How to Build a Tissue Box Catapult - Frugal Fun For Boys and Girls

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Turn an empty tissue box into a fun catapult! This engineering challenge is a great rainy day project for kids, and great for STEM learning too. This fun little catapult can be built in just a few minutes, and it shoots 8-10 feet! Far enough to be cool, but not enough power to hurt someone.