Create your own percussion instrument with recycled materials. Strum up your own sounds and dance to the beat.
What You Need:
- Cardboard tube
- Aluminum foil
- Beans, rice or popcorn kernels
- Scissors
- Tape
- Markers, paper, stickers, ribbons for decoration
What You Do:
- Tear strips of aluminum foil and roll them into spirals. Push them into the cardboard tube.
- Place aluminum foil over one end of the tube. Add tape to secure.
- Fill tube with rice, beans, or popcorn kernels. Different sizes and shapes produce different sounds.
- Place aluminum foil over the other end of tube. Add tape to secure.
- Decorate the tube with paper, markers, stickers, paint, and ribbons.
- Listen as you gently tilt the tube from end-to-end producing the sound of gentle rain.
Words to Use:
Did you know?
Traditional rainsticks originated in Latin America and the southern United States. People made them by drying a cactus, which is naturally hollow, and driving the needles into the cactus to smooth off its surface.
What to Talk About:
- Describe the sound you hear. What does it remind you of?
- How does the amount of beans, rice or kernels change the sound?
- Does the sound change if you shake the stick instead of gently tilting it? What’s different?
Change It Up:
- Age it Up: Use nails instead of aluminum foil. Push the nails into the cardboard tube all the way around to create a different sound.
- Age it Down: Fill a plastic container with beans or rice and decorate the outside to create a shaker.
Learning Connections:
- Critical Thinking
- Creativity
- Curiosity
- STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math)
- Cultural Understanding
Curriculum Connections:
- Science: 2.P.1
- Music: K.MR.1, 1.ML.3, 1.MR.1, 2.ML.3, 2.MR.1, 3.ML.3, 4.ML.3, 5.ML.3