You can recycle old rubbish into new things, learn a new skill, or create something crafty with these tutorials.
Don’t forget to share your results with us online, using #Horniman – we love to see what you have created.
Children can have lots of simple fun with this throw and catch game made from your recyclables.
You will need:
A clean bottle with a handle like a milk bottle or laundry detergent bottle
Clean foil (or news/tissue paper)
Scissors
Scalpel (but not essential)
Permanent pens or acrylic paint
Children can celebrate the world’s rivers and their wildlife in this paper collage river tutorial.
You will need:
Thin card (approx. 20cm x 15cm)
Sheets of various blue tones paper
Sheets of various green tones paper
Orange paper
Ruler
Pencil
Scissors
Glue
Wiggly scissors
Children can have lots of fun making their own beehive with bees and then play this simple game with their friends and/or sibling(s).
You will need:
Egg box base ( ideally yellow – if not, you can paint the egg box yellow)
Foil
Yellow tissue paper
Black pipe cleaners
Black pen
Scissors
Glue
Instagram – Make! Beehive game
You will need:
Thin recycled card (from a cereal box)
Paper – yellow, orange, green, white & light green (if you don’t have all these colours you can colour in a white paper)
Coloured pens or pencils (we used yellow, orange and brown)
Glue
Scissors
Pencil
Round object e.g. tape (for drawing your circles)
Kids can collect recipes in their own specially made recipe book in our latest Make! tutorial.
1 sheet of A5 thin card (approx. 30cm x 15cm)
6/8 sheets of A5 paper (approx. 30cm x 15cm)
Paper for decorating the cover
Pencil
Ruler
Glue
Scissors
Colouring pens or pencils
Rubber band (or string)
A bowl or plate (no wider than 15cm)
Teaspoon
Have your kids been inspired by our Butterfly House, or maybe you have been taking part in the Big Butterfly Count? Continue the fun at home with this butterfly finger puppet tutorial.
You will need:
Thin card (A5 size approx. 15cm x 21cm)
Paint 2/3 colours
Half a pipe cleaner
Paintbrush
Pencil Ruler
Sticky tape
Scissors Scrap
paper or cardboard
Celebrate Insect Week by making a little dung beetle friend, and some dung for them to roll.
You will need:
- Foil (approx. 30cm x 20cm)
- Two black pipe cleaners
- Black tissue paper
- Brown tissue paper
- A dessert spoon (ideally oval)
- Ruler
- Glue stick
- Scissors
- Sticky tape
To celebrate World Ocean’s Day, make your very own ocean in a bottle.
You will need:
- A clean plastic bottle
- Clean pieces of plastic in yellow, green and any other colours
- A pen that will draw on plastic
- Scissors
- PVA glue (dish and spreader)
- Sticky tape
- Water to fill your bottle (about 3/4 full)
- Blue food colouring and something to stir (not essential)
To celebrate Monkey Business why not make your own baby orangutan mask to continue the monkeying around at home?
You will need:
2 sheets of brown card in A4 size
Pens or pencils in orange/brown tone
Pencil & rubber
Sticky tape
Ruler
Scissors
Glue stick
Tissue paper – orange, cream, brown
Celebrate World Bee Day by making a solitary bee hotel so that solitary bees have somewhere to live!
You will need:
A can with no sharp edges e.g. one with a ring pull opening
Paper/ thin card/ recycled envelopes
Scissors
Ruler
Pencil
Permanent pen
Ribbon or string
Surprise your friends and family with this charming teapot invitation.
You will need:
- A4 White card or paper
- Teapot template (or you can freehand your own)
- Paintbrush/es
- Pencil
- Pen
- Scissors
- Lukewarm water
- Bowls (to hold your tea bags and water)
- Black tea or fruit teabags (If you use teabags that have already been brewed, the colours might not be as bright. Make sure they are cool before using them)
- Waterproof table cloth or mat
Make your own environmentally friendly soap.
You will need:
- A melt and pour soap base (We used about 150g for our three small soaps)
- Oats (We used about 20g)
- A pan
- A glass bowl (that is able to rest on top of the pan to create a bain-marie)
- A knife
- A wooden stick for stirring
- A container to put your soap into (silicone muffin/weaning trays are ideal. Alternatively you can use things such as yoghurt pots – that can be cut off once your soap is set)
- Essential oils (We used vanilla – but it’s not necessary)
Reuse the throwaway plastics at home by creating fascinating recycled jellyfish.
You will need:
- A base for your jellyfish such as the bottom of a plastic bottle, yoghurt, dessert pots
- Plastic – This can be from carrier bags, cereal bags, the film from window envelopes, tea bag foil packaging, and packaging from vegetables
- Scissors
- Sticky tape
- Permanent pens or a pencil
Children will love creating their own jester hats in this simple tutorial they can get into the spirit of carnival.
You will need:
- Tape
- Scissors
- Glue
- Pens or pencils
- Ruler or you can just do it by eye
- Card (cereal/pizza box) or paper (large A4 envelopes)
- Three triangles approx. 7cm x 18cm
- Three long strips approx.. 4cm wide – to join together and use the headband piece
- Any paper or plastic in the colours, purple, yellow, green. These are the traditional colours of carnival but you can substitute with any other coloured paper or pieces of plastic.
Step into Chinese New Year with this fire breathing dragon.#
You will need:
- Ruler
- Sticky tape
- Glue
- Pencil
- Black pen
- Scissors
- Coloured card (18cm x 10cm) or cereal box card or half a kitchen roll middle
- Tissue paper – red, orange, yellow, gold and black and white
- Metallic paper or tin foil
- White paper
Pinterest – Make! Chinese New Year – Fire breathing dragon
Make your own hand-printed eco wrapping paper with your vegetable scraps!
You will need:
- Paper on a roll (or a large piece of paper)
- Scissors
- Food gel/colouring
- Chopping board
- Knife
- Vegetable tops/offcuts
Pinterest – Make! Eco wrapping paper
Celebrate Hanukkah with this simple papercraft tutorial.
You will need:
- A plain piece of card
- Scraps of coloured paper and card
- Scissors
- Glue
- Pencil
Pinterest – Make! Menorah Craft
This Make! tutorial is a nifty way to help children manage their pocket money.
You will need:
- Scraps of tissue paper and stickers
- Black felt pen or permanent marker
- Labels (or white paper)
- Scissors
- PVA glue
- Dish and spreader
- Clear tape
- Three clean recycled jars (e.g. glass sauce jars and plastic spice jars)
Pinterest – Make! Give-Spend-Save Jars
Celebrate the Festival of Lights by making a wonderful Diwali decoration.
You will need:
- Cereal box card or a paper plate
- A plate to draw around (or a large circle shape)
- Junk mail, packaging card and or scraps of tissue paper
- Tissue paper
- Kitchen foil or shiny paper scraps
- Scissors
- Pencil
- Pritt stick glue
Pinterest – Make! Diwali Diva Decoration
Make your own adire textile inspired by the traditional techniques used by the Yoruba women in south-western Nigeria. What patterns will you make?
Adire textile is made by tying small portions of fabric tightly together to prevent them from absorbing dye. When untied, small circular marks in the original fabric colour are revealed.
You will need:
- A small piece of plain white or light coloured fabric. Cotton or natural fibres work best.
- A bottle of blue food colouring
- A bowl
- Rubber bands or string
- A lolly stick or spoon for stirring
Pinterest – Make! Adire Style Cloth
Make your own hand-fan inspired by a Nigerian fan from our collections.
You will need:
- Scissors
- Tape
- String
- PVA glue
- Peg
- Ruler
- Black/brown colouring pencils
- Pencil
- 2 lolly sticks
Find all the steps:
Make an animal finger puppet – like this lion – out of scrap materials.
You will need:
- Cereal box or sheet of card
- 2 circular shaped objects of different sizes to draw around
- scraps of paper or card
- felt pens and/or coloured pencils
- pencil
- scissors
- glue stick
Find all the steps:
Pinterest – Make! Animal Puppet tutorial
In this handmade game, make a fishing rod to remove the plastic from the turtle’s home and help clean up the ocean.
You will need:
- Glue
- Tape
- Scissors
- Black pen
- Pencil
- Card from a cereal box
- Three plastic lids
- Egg box base
- Stick
- Two pipe cleaners
- Blue paper
Create something precious from the things we throw away.
You will need
- Scissors
- A Pritt Stick or other glue stick
- A collection of coloured, transparent wrapping papers from sweets like Quality Street
- A selection of transparent thin plastic containers normally thrown away
- A permanent fine marker
- Thread or fishing wire
- A cut out butterfly made from card or paper
- Optional – a torch
Create a wonderful bag from recycled t-shirts without any need for sewing. You will need:
- scissors, and optional decorating materials
- We used fabric paint, pom-poms, fabric glue or PVA glue
Make wonderful summer carnival headdresses. You will need:
- Glue
- Scissors
- Sellotape
- Ruler Stapler (not essential)
- Card (old cereal packets) Magazine/newspaper
- Plastic bags (coloured if possible)
Attract birds to your garden or window ledge with this DIY bird feeder. You will need:
- drink carton
- scissors
- pencil or pen
- paint
- string or wool
- a garden stick or straight twig.
Tell wonderful stories and create fantastic sock puppets. You will need:
- glue or needle and thread
- fabric
- old socks
- scissors
- buttons.
Do you find hand sewing tricky, or want to teach the basics to children? This is the tutorial for you. You will need:
- card
- wool
- scissors
- a pencil.
Enjoy this Easter Craft: Chick headdress activity over the Easter Holidays. You will need:
- tape or a stapler
- A4 card or scrap card
- ruler
- pencils
- glue stick
- decorating materials (like used tissue paper and magazine scraps).
Have fun making these pom pom chicks. You will need:
- wool
- card
- scissors
- felt-tip pens or colouring pencils
- glue
- a cup
- £1 coin.
Explore your crafty side and get creative with this weaving tutorial and see what amazing woven creations you can make. You will need:
- an empty photo frame
- string
- fabric, cut up (we used an old t-shirt)
- chopsticks or pencils to create the loom.