Wonderful school festival / cultural festival

[For school cultural festivals] Recommended maze ideas and traps

10 years as a kindergarten teacher / elementary school teacher / junior and senior high school teacher / childminderkepiko
Graduated from Kunitachi College of Music, Faculty of Music (now: Department of Music Culture and Education, Early Childhood Music Education major). In elementary school, my homeroom teacher was Jun Kusaba, a game researcher. After graduating from university, I worked as a kindergarten teacher for 10 years and as an after-school childcare instructor for 7 years, then took a position as a music teacher at an international school in Singapore. In addition to music education, I engaged in activities that introduced Japanese culture, traditional games, and recreational activities, working with many children. Later, through freelance writing, planning, and editing at Shogakukan, I met many delightful adults and experienced the joy of communicating and sharing. Drawing on the perspective cultivated in the field of education and my experience as an editor, I provide practical information with an emphasis on both input and output, mainly in areas related to music and children. My hobbies include instruments, singing, handicrafts, toys, drawing, traditional games, the outdoors, and books. My special skill is spinning-top tricks.
Deputy Editor of RAG MUSICsasashina
Deputy Editor of RAG MUSIC. JFC-certified fact-checker. I’m Sasashina, a mom currently raising an elementary schooler and a preschooler. During my student years at Kyoto College of Science and Technology, I studied a wide range of fields including sound, lighting, and video technology, building a foundation in comprehensive stage production and creative expression. After graduation, I joined a music production company, where I still work, consistently building experience in production and engaging in a variety of music-centered tasks. Currently, I mainly handle articles for children, drawing on what I’ve learned about parenting and what I feel and discover through daily interactions with my kids. I hope my work can be of help to you, even in a small way!

If you’re wondering what to do for your school festival exhibit, how about creating a maze?

Designing an ordinary maze can be tough, but if you want to get creative and really energize the festival, this is a must-see.

We’ve packed in ideas for traps to hide inside the maze and concepts for full-fledged maze designs—ideas that will make it an unforgettable experience for both the creators and the visitors.

From photo-worthy fun to surprising twists, this collection is full of ideas that are as enjoyable to make as they are to explore!

[For school culture festivals] Recommended maze ideas and traps (21–30)

Tunnel Maze

Honmoku Everyone’s After-School Activity: “Let’s Make a Tunnel Maze with Cardboard!” 1

Tunnel Maze

How about creating a maze as an attraction for your school or cultural festival and letting visitors enjoy it? A tunnel maze made by connecting cardboard into tube shapes is a basic style among cardboard mazes, so it should be relatively easy to build.

Best of all, a giant maze is something everyone can work on together.

It will strengthen class bonds and become a great memory! You can also make it more complex or add tricks along the way for extra fun, so definitely give it a try.

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Darkness Maze

Terrifying dark maze! It was seriously terrifying! #horror #darkness #paranormal

Darkness Maze

A maze where you search for the way forward as you aim for the goal—if it’s shrouded in darkness, you might not even know whether you’re moving ahead or back.

It works well for a haunted-house vibe, and even a simple maze would likely become more difficult.

It could also help obscure other traps and build the world’s atmosphere, enhancing the overall quality of the maze.

Total darkness would be ideal, but even dim lighting should be effective.

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[For cultural festivals and school festivals] Recommended maze ideas and traps (31–40)

A trap with hands coming out of the wall

A prank where a hand suddenly comes out of the wall!!

A trap with hands coming out of the wall

How about installing a classic trap in the maze—one that’s also a staple of haunted houses—where a hand suddenly pops out from the wall? In haunted houses, you sometimes see hands bursting through paper sliding doors, but creating holes in the wall and concealing them with something would also work well.

Since you want to startle the target at an unexpected moment, the key to this trap is how well you can lower their guard.

You can try many ideas: a hand coming from the opposite side of a conspicuous object, or a hand reaching down from above when someone is peering into something, and so on.

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Ninja Mansion Maze

Ocean Expo Park Cardboard Maze: Escape from the Ninja House — Now Open!

Ninja Mansion Maze

Let’s try creating a maze themed after a ninja mansion! Of course you’ll want it to look like a real ninja house, but you can also delight participants by adding ninja-inspired tricks throughout the maze.

For example, make it so you can’t proceed without finding a hidden door, include areas where people have to tightrope-walk or crawl through nets, and even set up a game corner for throwing shuriken—it all sounds like fun, right? Share lots of ideas for tricks and build a maze that’s unlike any ordinary one, with layers of unique twists!

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Art Maze

Many students are probably considering a cardboard maze as an attraction for their school or cultural festival! While the maze is made with lots of cardboard, the plain brown can feel dull and bland.

In that case, how about choosing a theme and decorating the inside of the maze with art? Dinosaurs, amusement parks, vehicles—decide on a theme together with your class! Painting art on the cardboard to delight your visitors is fun, too.

An art-filled maze that both the creators and the visitors can enjoy is sure to become a lifelong memory!

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Maze with a giant slide

Introduction to the Giant Cardboard Maze & Large Slide

Maze with a giant slide

A must-see for anyone planning exhibits for a cultural or school festival! This maze is a giant cardboard labyrinth with a slide, made by connecting multiple everyday cardboard boxes.

Using boxes of roughly the same size makes construction relatively easy.

Even with a simple build—just gluing cardboard together—you can create a full-fledged maze with a smart design! The slide, built by stacking cardboard boxes, is something you’ll definitely want to try at least once.

It can be fun in a classroom, but setting it up in a larger space like a gymnasium will offer a more dynamic maze experience.

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Create a sponge zone

How about creating a zone in the maze that’s filled with sponges? Having to push through them can make progress feel more difficult, while the unique sensation underfoot creates a fun, tactile space.

As a mischievous trap using this sponge area, a treasure-hunt style challenge—where players must search for an item to help them push through the sponges and move forward—could also be interesting.

It’s an idea with lots of possible variations, whether as a relaxation zone or as a trap.

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