"I’m a robot and I’m coming to get you!"
After a summer of entertaining the kids finding activities for them to do can easily become a challenge especially when the money pot is almost empty, but don’t worry the robots are here to save you! Building a cardboard robot is a creative activity that gets the whole family involved and the best part is its absolutely free! Do be warned though this is a messy one!
What you will need:
- Assorted cardboard boxes, for example: cereal boxes, delivery boxes, TV boxes and electronics boxes (you will need to gather materials before you start building so this does need some pre planning)
- Assorted plastic bottles (make sure they’re clean and empty before you begin)
- Paper (coloured or plain)
- Sellotape
- Felt tip pens or kids poster paint (optional)
- A wild imagination!
How to build:
- Before you begin building get everyone together and create a rough plan of your robot, this will help you to build it later on. Make sure everyone contributes and it can be as crazy as your imagination can take you! If you have a large family then why not split into smaller groups and create a robot in each group.
- Once your plan is complete, select a box for the body of your robot (make sure to choose one of your biggest boxes) then build from there, you can make legs and arms from plastic bottles (2L bottles are the best to support your robot’s legs) and a head from another box. The only limit is your imagination! To create the limbs you could use large plastic bottles. Once the legs and arms are attached to the body of your robot you can cover them in paper to make decoration easier later on. Don’t forget you can make your robot as big as you like, even adult sized!
- Once the basic shape of your robot is complete it is time for decoration, you can’t have a boring robot! Decorate with a face, a laser pistol, a control panel or whatever you can think of. You can add colour to your robot using felt tip pens or kids poster paint.
- Now for the most important part, the name. To fully complete your robot get the kids to think up the perfect name for your family robot.
Well done your robot is complete!
Building a robot is a simple activity that builds the creativity of your kids and improves your family bonds. Once your robot is finished it can be taken apart and recycled as normal or kept as a sweet reminder of all the fun you had together.
