This is a fun way to give an ice-cream tub another life! Because there's some tough plastic cutting involved, I'd recommend a grown up makes the basic robot body, and then let little ones loose with some glue and an assortment of cardboard, bottle tops, plastic lids, yogurt pots, string, beads - anything you can find really. So they can create their very own robot.
We used some cream cartons for legs, and cut a rectangle shaped hole to slot them into the plastic tub. I cut the tub with nail scissors - drawing a rough pen outline first, then piercing a hole and cutting along the line. You could use cardboard tubes instead - we used some kitchen rolls for the robot's arms, and a toilet paper roll to support its yogurt pot head.
Roughly draw around the tube, where you want it to go, and cut out the plastic circle. Cut just inside the line, so the hole isn't too big.
Now the robot body is ready for decorating! Gather up an assortment of bits and bobs saved from the bin and the recycling (I keep a small container in the kitchen for anything I think might come in handy in a craft project - it fills up quickly!)
String works well for tubes and wires, and lids and beads are great for buttons and knobs. We used pva craft glue to attach things, but a glue gun would be quicker if you prefer to use that.
Only glue on the things you want to spray (or paint). We kept the head separate, because we wanted to add details to the face once everything had been sprayed.
You can paint your robot, but it's much easier and faster to spray it! The silver spray really brings it all together. An adult needs to do the spraying though.
Once dry, add any other colourful pieces you want, and add eyes and mouth and anything else you fancy to the robot's head. We coloured in some paper and cut out a black mouth. Clothes pegs are handy for keeping things in place while the glue dries.
Pipe cleaners work well as antennae - we wrapped this one around a pencil first, then made a small hole in the pot to feed it through. Once you're happy, glue the head in place.
