Arts & crafts: Balancing robots

- By Clamber Club

When it comes to practising balancing skills with our children I am sure that most of us automatically think of more gross motor activities like egg and spoon races, balance beams, climbing on jungle gyms etc… than indoor arts and crafts. Well, I found this fun robot craft by Buggy and Buddy to do indoors (on a cold winter afternoon) with my little ones that is all about balance.

There were a few things that made this particular craft so appealing:
1. The printable was provided and all the children had to do was colour it in and let me cut it out (older children can cut their own robots out).
2. It built on the balance skills that I have currently been practising with the children outdoors.
3. It also utilized their fine motor skills by requiring them to colour in and decorate their robots.

For this activity you need:
• The robot printable from Buggy and Bunny that you can download here
• Cardboard to either print the robot on or to stick them to so they aren’t all floppy
• Some coloured markers, crayons etc… to colour the robots in
• Glue to stick the front and back of the robots together
• Scissors
• Some coins to weigh the robot arms down

Print out the robot shapes and let your little ones colour them in. I was told that I had to do one too.

Once they are done cut out your robots and glue together the front and back sides (stick some cardboard in the middle if you printed them out onto paper). Make sure that you don’t glue the ‘hands’ together as this is where you will need to stick the coins.

Glue the coins to the inside of the hands (make sure that they are of the same denomination to ensure that the robot is balanced). I found that my coins slipped out so I reinforced them with some sticky tape.

Give the robots to your children and let them balance them on their fingers, noses and varies places around the house.