There is so much play potential in “junk” items. Before throwing something away, it’s always good to get an extra use out of it and create a play opportunity for the children. We’ve always been keen on junk modelling, so I was happy to join in with the 60 days of Junk Play challenge over at Best Toys 4 Toddlers, where we will be exploring the different ways to play with many common household items that would otherwise have been thrown away.
We receive a lot of parcels, so always have a supply of packing peanuts coming into the house. Rather than throwing them away straight away, we keep some of them for crafts or play activities. They can be used as a sensory bin filler, or for construction play.
Don’t they look so inviting – they are such an open ended material, and are fun to squish and squeeze too.
To stick our packing peanuts together we experimented with a couple of different options : glue dots, and blu tack. Both of these work fine, the glue dots stick more permanently and the blue tack allows for more flexibility – build something, pull it apart and change it, and build it again.
I also included polystyrene balls together with the packing peanuts, they’re great to use as a base to build off and they blend in well with the packing peanuts.
Packing Peanut Baymax
One of the fun creations we made with the packing peanuts was this cute little packing peanut Baymax from Big Hero 6. This one was made with glue dots so that it all stays together and can be played with.
To make Baymax all you need is 4 white packing peanuts, 1 large polystyrene ball, 1 small polystyrene ball, glue dots (or your choice of glue) and a black marker pen.
My boys all love Big Hero 6 so playing with their own home made friendly Baymax was a lot of fun.
The children made lots of other creations with their packing peanuts too. As well as 3d characters like Baymax, you can squish them and stick them together to make shapes or letters like this:
For more fun junk play ideas, follow the full series over at Best Toys 4 Toddlers by clicking the image below:
And before you throw your packing peanuts away, next time why not see what fun creations you can make out of them first!
More Junk Modelling
- Junk Modelling Ideas, Supplies and Inspiration
- Junk Modelling Butterfly Craft
- 11 Recycled Junk Modelling Crafts
- 10 Junk Modelling Cardboard Craft Ideas
- Soda Bottle Rocket Kids Craft
More Big Hero 6
- Big Hero 6 Science Experiment : Baymax Rocket Fist
- Big Hero 6 Paper Plate Baymax with Armour
- Big Hero 6 Honey Lemon’s Honeybee Cupcakes
- Big Hero 6 Printable Activity Sheets
Anna Marikar, mum of four and seasoned blogger, has spent over a decade sharing her parenting journey and passion for kid-friendly crafts and free printables.
Her easy-to-follow craft ideas and practical parenting advice have transformed In The Playroom into a cherished resource for parents.
My 4 year old adores them. He loves nothing more than a boxd with some packing in to jump about and roll around in.
Great Baymax!! 🙂
Great idea! Too bad we don’t see packing peanuts as much as we used to! Thanks for sharing at the Thoughtful Spot Weekly Blog Hop! We hope you join us again next week!