Rainy-day activities with no trip to the shops

One box or clean tin becomes the body, with smaller boxes, tubes and cans taped or glued on as a head, arms and legs. Bottle caps, buttons and kitchen foil make the eyes and dials. Planning a build from the parts to hand is the point, and it suits ages 4 to 12. Cover any sharp can rims with tape.

Kitchen roll and toilet roll tubes are taped down a tall piece of cardboard, some cut into open troughs, so a marble rolls from one to the next and into a cup at the bottom. Children see how gravity and slope affect speed. An adult should help with cutting, and marbles are a choking hazard for under-threes.

Two tins or paper cups are joined by 5 to 10 metres of string, knotted inside a hole in each base. With the string tight, a quiet voice at one end can be heard at the other, because sound travels as vibrations along the string. An adult must pierce the cans, and paper cups are safer for younger children.

Three to six empty tins, tubs, pots and boxes are turned upside down and arranged in a curve, with wooden spoons or unsharpened pencils as drumsticks. Tapping each one shows that big hollow containers sound deep and small tight ones sound sharp. Children from age 3 can join in. An adult should tape over any rough rims first.

A cardboard box big enough to fit over the head is covered in silver foil, with a large face hole and stickers or flags for decoration. Children learn why astronauts need a sealed helmet in space, where there is no air. An adult cuts the face hole. The helmet must fit loosely and never cover the nose or mouth.

A blob of runny paint is spooned onto paper, then blown through a straw so it spreads into spidery branches. Turning the paper and adding more colours lets the branches meet and mix. It takes 20 minutes and shows moving air pushing the paint around. Remind children to blow out, never suck in, and cover clothes and the table.

Paper is folded in half, half a butterfly is drawn along the crease and blobs of paint are added to one side only. Folding it shut and smoothing it over prints a matching pattern on the other wing. This is line symmetry, where one half mirrors the other, an important part of maths. Cover the table if using paint.

Dry tube pasta such as penne or rigatoni is shaken in freezer bags with food colouring and a little vinegar, left to dry for about an hour, then threaded onto a shoelace or thick wool. For ages 3 to 6, it builds hand-eye coordination and patience. Keep the string short and never leave a child alone wearing the necklace.

Two colours of bead stand for 1 and 0. Each letter of a name is looked up on a binary chart and threaded onto elastic as a pattern of eight beads, with a spacer bead between letters. It shows how computers store every letter using two symbols. Small beads are a choking hazard, so keep them away from under-threes.

Embroidery thread in three or four colours is knotted row after row into V shapes, with the top taped to a table or pinned to a cushion. The repeating knots teach sequencing and pattern-making, and reward patience with a stripey band to tie around the wrist. Allow 45 minutes. The only other things needed are scissors and sticky tape.

A pop-up bottle cap is glued over the hole in a CD, and a blown-up balloon stretched over the closed cap. Pull the cap open on a smooth table and the disc glides, because a cushion of escaping air reduces friction. An adult should help with the glue and blow up the balloon, as balloons are a choking hazard.