A Mindful Activity in development- Marble Roll

In the last week of term 3 we had a school production so in the last weeks heading up to the End of Term we really pushed mindful activities in class. I raided my daughters toilet rolls (Who has 40+ toilet rolls? - I know, crazy, right) that she uses for art and crafts and we tried Marble Roll. 

Why: Marble Roll is a cooperative game for teaching mindfulness

Materials: empty paper towel or toilet paper roll for each child, one marble for the group photos

The children stand in a line, close together. Each child holds an empty paper towel or toilet paper roll. The child at the head of the line puts the marble in her paper towel roll and tilts it slightly so that the marble rolls into the roll of the person next to her. 

 The object is to try to move the marble from the first person in the line to the last person without dropping the marble. No catching with hands allowed! If someone drops the marble, she must start over again at the beginning of the line.

From Planting Seeds: Practicing Mindfulness with Children (2011) by Thich Nhat Hanh and the Plum Village Community.  

Things didn't go as planned and we couldn't get past one or two children. The toilet rolls were too short. Using different sized tubes meant the marble got stuck on the lip of the cardboard and having 40 participants made a lot of standing around time while the children problem solved. 

It was fun for the children involved but it wasn't a collaborative activity-yet

In the last days of term longer tubes started appearing on the tables at the front of the class as the children brought them in. It seems Marble Roll was a hit even with the initial set backs. I love the fact the children are willing to give it another chance to make it better.

We started incorporating art tubes and one of the boy's dad is a plumber maybe, just maybe, he will bring in a plastic PVC down pipe.