Today we are going to make a labyrinth or maze out of cereal boxes. “But I don’t eat cereal, Erik.” That’s ok, you can use any type of cardboard for this.

Materials:

• 2 Cereal boxes (or any type of shallow cardboard box) equal in size
• Lots of straws
• Glue
• Tape
• Extra cardboard
• Toilet paper or paper towel rolls
• Something to punch holes with; an awl, drill bit
• Scissors and/or exacto knife
• Random stuff from around your home to use as obstacles
• Small marble or ball of some sort (nothing too light)
• Marker or colored pencils
• Decorations: stickers, colorful paper, wrapping paper

Getting Started:
Close the open end of the cereal boxes with glue and tape. Then cut the face off of the boxes so that you have 2 shallow boxes.

Prepare your base:
Cut up at least 14 small pieces of cardboard equal in height, to about the midway point of the base cereal box. These are going to hold up the top box. Glue or tape them in the corners and midway along the long edges of the base box. Make a small square in one corner of the box, this will be the end point of the maze. Next cut 2 small boxes in the base. One in the end box, so that the ball comes out. Then the other cutout will be on the opposite side of the box to let the ball come out when it falls through a hole.

Create your maze:
Take the top box and start to plan out your maze. Mark the end first and put a hole in the corner so that it goes over the end box on your base. Then decide where the starting point will be, and mark this. Next start laying down your maze. Straws work really well, you can cut these up and glue them down. Add obstacles and holes as well to trip up the users. Make this as difficult or simple as you’d like. Then decorate it. Give it a theme or make it look nice.

Once your maze is done you can place the maze onto the base. Then use clear tape and tape around the edges and corners so that it doesn’t move or come off. Then challenge your friends and family.

This is a simple maze. If you want to go crazy, look up images of labyrinths and see if you can make yours as technical. Or try to create a maze with different shapes like an octagon or hexagon. Make sure that it is not too difficult though, no one enjoys an unsolvable puzzle.

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