Mouse Hole Roll

For my son's 7th birthday, he decided that he wanted a Circus theme, so we set out to make a bunch of homemade carnival games. The kids had as much fun making the games as they did playing them! They were so simple to make and saved us a bunch of money, so we didn't have to buy expensive games from the party store! That made for a happy birthday boy and a happy Mommy!
How we did it:
Materials List
- cardboard box
- paint and paintbrushes
- scissors
- markers
- various craft materials - optional
- balls - golf balls or wiffle balls
- tacky glue
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Gather all materials. I love finding new ways to use a cardboard box! We get so many of them, and I always find that kids have more fun playing with boxes than with any toys that could come inside them.
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I cut the flaps off of the top of the box to make it easier to roll a ball through. We used the flaps later to decorate the box.
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The kids had a great time painting the box. My 4-year-old wanted to paint each side a different color. We chose to do red, blue, and yellow to go along with the Circus theme of our party. Each of the kids painted a different side.
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Once the box dried, I cut two "mouse" holes in one side of the box. I made one hole just big enough for the ball to go through and the other one larger to make it easier for the littlest party-goers to roll their ball through. At the party, we gave one ticket for the large hole and two tickets for the smaller hole.
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We decided to use one of the cut-off flaps from the top of the box to make a sign. The kids painted it yellow and then I drew the outline of the letters so my older kids could color them in.
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My 7-year-old decided that we needed to add a mouse to our box so we found some clip art and he colored it in. We mounted it on construction paper and glued the mouse to the box.
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The kids had a great time trying to roll their golf balls into the holes. This would make a great party game or an activity to keep the kids occupied when it's too cold to go outside.