Box robot

From the house

• Empty boxes and tubes from the recycling
• Tape
• Foil and bottle lids for buttons
• A marker

How to play

1. Lay out the boxes and ask, “Which one is the body? Which is the head?”
2. They hold each piece in place while you tape it, then swap: you hold, they tape.
3. Add tube arms and legs, foil eyes and bottle-lid buttons.
4. Give the robot a name and a job, and make its beep-boop voice together.

Fit it to your child

• Easier: Use just two boxes, a body and a head, and let them draw the face.
• Harder: They draw a plan first, then build it themselves and add a control panel of numbered buttons.

Words to use

• body
• head
• arms
• tape
• beep boop

Why it helps

Deciding which box goes where is real design, and holding while taping teaches two hands to work as a team.