Recycled Junk Robots

Some of my favorite projects are done with recycled junk and this is a new one to add to the list. The idea comes from my daughter's kindergarten teacher. We've been making recycled robots at home too and I wanted to share how to make them.

Materials Needed:
recycled boxes (we mostly used food boxes)
recycled Lids and bottle caps for eyes and buttons
Cardboard tubes
glue or glue gun
aluminum foil
silvery pipe cleaners
anything else you choose

To create a robot, we first gathered some food boxes, cardboard tubes, bottle caps, and lids. We built the robot without gluing to see how it would look.

Next, we covered the boxes and cardboard tubes with aluminum foil to give the robot a cool metal look. We used a glue gun for fast dry time.

Then we glued the pieces and parts together. 

Lastly, we added more bottle caps for decoration and buttons.  For a finishing touch we added silver pipe cleaners and a foil tail to make a Robot Monkey.

This one is a Robot Doggie.

We'll be making more Robot Creatures soon! Such a fun project.


We made these Tin Can Magnetic Robots a couple years ago.  Find out how to make them here.

Tin Can Magnetic Robots

I saw this idea over at the Family Fun Magazine  and knew that we had to do this! I'm sure glad that we did! Don't these Robots look Fabulous?  You'll need some recycled tin cans, various hardware pieces, plastic lids, pipe cleaners, strong disk magnets, and a hot glue gun. These robots inspired hours of imaginative play and were fun to create! Take a look at the fun we had...

First, we got together different pieces of hardware, lids, scrubbers, and pipe cleaners. 

Then we got our recycled tin cans together and some strong disk magnets.  Also, you'll need a hot-glue gun to attach magnets to the hardware and lids.

Cassie had a lot of FUN just playing with the magnets and the metal hardware even before we put anything together!  She made some Magnetic and Hardware Sculptures! Magnets inspire imaginations!

Here is C adding some hot glue to some plastic lids so she can attach the magnets.

Here she is pleased with adding the magnets!

After some of the magnets were glued to the hardware/lids, Cassie began to construct some robots. The nice thing is that the robots can be changed over and over! C liked using the scrubbers for hair. These were just placed on top of the cans without magnets.

More play going on here!

We added metallic pipe cleaners into the scrubbers for hair and then we were basically done. You could easily add more pieces or cans! Now there is a new toy to play with in our house!

These tin can robots inspired some robot drawings too! Love these drawings!

We hope to have many more hours of play with these Tin Can Robots!!!

What kinds of toys have you created with kids?