Recycled Robots

I’m very pleased to introduce some blogging friends of mine to you. Over the next couple of months they will be visiting here to share some fun ideas. First up is Asia who writes the fabulous blog Fun At Home with Kids. It’s a new blog that’s already full of great ideas. I know you’ll want to pop on over after you see these fun recycled robots!

We’ve been saving the colored caps from X’s food pouches, and I’ve been trying to think of ways to use them because they’re so nice and bright.I’ve seen these tin can robots a few times online, and when I went to Lowe’s to pick up safety goggles and a hammer for S for her plaster excavation, I was surprised to find how inexpensive nuts, bolts, and washers were!

For just a few dollars I was able to get a variety of robot hardware.  Next up, I bought some round magnets.

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A few washed tin cans later, S and I were in business!We grabbed some googly eyes (Dollar Store!) and pipe cleaners from our stash in the Art Room, my hot glue gun, and a hammer and nail.

I wanted the robots to have crazy hair and I’m always looking for ways to use pipe cleaners (we have an astronomical number of pipe cleaners we’ve accumulated through gifts from relatives) so it seemed like a perfect fit!

I used the hammer and nail to poke holes to fit some brightly colored pipe cleaner hair.

Some of the bottle caps were metal, so S could just use a magnet between them and the can, as she could with the nuts, bolts, and washers.For the plastic caps, we needed to use glue (we talked about why the magnet wouldn’t work on plastic).  I also made some magnetic googly eyes by gluing on magnets.

They were so cute and fun, I had to join in!  Here is S posing with a crazy face next to my robot creation.  :)We discovered that the magnets were strong enough to hold on to the metal centers of pipecleaners, so we could make mustaches and smiles!

All four of these guys were S’s creations.  The only help I offered was zig-zagging some of the pipecleaner hair.

S was so proud that she thought to use just plain magnets for eyes.  I love that this guy has a cute little smirk – and a bright blue mustache!

The next day we made even crazier eyes by sandwiching a bolt between the can and the bottle cap eyes.

So many robot parts to choose from!

Putting the finishing touches on her robot’s hair.

The robot bodies and parts are all in a plastic storage container (with a locking lid for X’s safety) and S can use them as a sort of busy box whenever she’d like.

Please always supervise your infant/child at play.  Please stay within arms reach and never leave infants/children unattended.