Monday, May 26, 2014

Robot Party Ideas

Over the years we had several parties with Robot activities, though only one was completely robot themed. 

MAKE A ROBOT
For my oldest's 7th Birthday, I spray-painted a bunch of boxes, lids and other things, silver and gold, and also collected metal parts like springs and bottle caps and then set the kids at them with tape, glue and and Velcro strips to make their own robots.  Styrofoam works well too:  just leave it white--don't spray paint it, because some paints can cause it to corrode and omit fumes.  You can also do a smaller take home version with nuts, bolts, springs and other junk (be careful for sharp edges).




For my middle son's 8th birthday we did something similar for a Transformers Theme...only in stead of odds and ends we used legos.  The original plan was to have each child make a car or plane, and then re-use the same pieces to "transform" it into a Robot.  Because of time we just let them make a robot or a car or plane.








Robot Favors

CRAYONS
We also made robot shaped crayons for party favors at my son's Transformers Party.  They were a big hit.



Making crayons is pretty fun.   First, you need a mold.  Any plastic candy mold or silicon mold will do--but for safety reasons you should not make candy in a mold you've used to melt crayons.   You can find an assortment of Robot molds here.   

There's several ways to melt the crayons, but the way I've found works the best is to melt similar colored crayons in each section of a disposable muffin tin in the oven between 200 to 300 degrees.  Start low and raise the temp if they don't seem to be melting fast enough.  They should melt in about 15 minutes.  Then I use a plastic spoon to spoon the different colors where I want.  Make sure to cover the area well with paper to catch drips, because melted crayon is a bear to clean.  You may have to stick the tin back in the oven again if it starts to harden.

I did not use a disposable muffin tin when I did this.  I thought the
muffin cups would protect it.  Alas, it doesn't protect from drips.

If you have a silicon mold, you can just put the crayon chunks straight in the mold and stick them in the oven.  Unfortunately that would not work with the clear plastic mold I used for the Robot Crayons above, because it would melt right with the crayons.

Here in Waco, during a hot summer day, you can also just put broken pieces of crayon into the mold and leave these outside to melt.  100+ degree heat is good for something!



CANDY ROBOT
Several years ago my son came home with this hand-made Robot valentine.  It would also make a fun party favor.  The paper is folded in a triangle (sorry...I don't have a side view with the candy items glues on--Rolos for eyes and hersheys for feet.  They glued a bar-code for the mouth (which would be collected or printed) and made arms out of tin foil (also glued on).




Anyways, there's some ideas to get you started.  Of course there's lots more on pinterest (definitely check out the free Robot Printables There).









Shared on Throwback Thursday


3 comments:

  1. Cute! A robot theme looks so fun.

    ReplyDelete
  2. How neat! I'm going to share this with my sister for my nephew :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a fun party idea. Reminded me of the recycled robot craft we did several years ago, and the big robot my oldest daughter made for a project while in public school. I love those candy robots. Thanks for stopping by and sharing on Throwback Thursday Blog-Style. I hope you will be able to join in again.

    ReplyDelete