Grimm's rainbow ball run spiral instructions

Self-Propelling Spiral Ball Run

  • Emily 

The classic Grimms Ball Run is the spiral–where you set up the rainbow with the end of each arch touching the beginning of the next, and then push the ball gently around the loops to the middle. If you kids are a little older (6ish +?), this updated, self-propelling version of the spiral is a great build for them to approach on their own as, once you have the system down, its really manageable to extrapolate and see what comes next. (video at the end!)

To build this run, you need three sets–the Grimms “small balls” (they come in a 12-pack), a grimms large (12-piece) rainbow, and the Grimms Large Stepped Counting Blocks.

Grimms Small Balls
Grimms Large Rainbow
Grimms Large Stepped Counting Blocks

With almost all ball runs, the best practice is to start building at the end, and this one is no exception.

At the Base, set up the innermost piece of the Rainbow on the floor, and the Second piece on top of a couple of the flattest pieces from the counting blocks
Make sure the edges are lined up as shown, then add three of the green counting block pieces on the other side of the inner most piece
The next arch goes on top of the green pieces, and the blue on top of the lime pieces, always making sure the ends line up neatly
Keep working your way out until all of the arches are in place, stepping up one height/color with each layer. you may sometimes have to be creative with support placement
The last two arches will both rest on the dark blue (tallest) pieces from the Large Stepped Counting blocks set
After building the full run, if you then remove all the arches except the middle one which sits on the floor, this is what my supports looked like

Happy Rolling!

If you don’t have the Large stepped counting blocks, but do have cubes and Color Rally charts, I think you could make it work that way as well. Let me know if you give it a try!

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