Gomestic > Do-It-Yourself

Music Makers for Young Children

Musical instruments your young children can make with mom or dad's help.

1. Paper Plate Tambourine

Materials you will need:

  • 2 shallow paper bowls or 2 foil pie pans
  • Beans, rice, or pebbles for rattles
  • White glue
  • Scissors
  • Yarn or ribbon for streamers
  • Marking pen for paper plates

To Make:

  1. Decorate each paper bowl with marking pens for a colorful design.
  2. Place about 1 cup beans, rice, or pebbles in one bowl.
  3. Put glue on edges of bowl.
  4. Place second bowl on top. Pressing firmly until glue dries throughly.about 20 minutes.
  5. With scissors punch small holes at equal intervals around the edge of both paper bowls.
  6. Attach yarn or ribbon for streamers through holes. You can use staples to hold bowls or pie pan together.

2. Tin Pan Tambourine

Materials you will need:

  • Metal pie tin any size
  • Model paint or acrylic paint (optional)
  • 8 metal bottle caps
  • Twine or heavy cord
  • Pliers
  • Hammer
  • Ice pick or punch

To Make:

  1. Decorate the metal pan with the paint if you wish.
  2. With punch or pick punch holes at intervals around edge of pan
  3. With pliers bend edge of bottle caps outward, then flatted with hammer on hard surface.
  4. To remove plastic from bottle caps, use pliers to hold cap and hold over heat on stove to melt plastic.( Have good ventilation) Adult must do this. Cork can be removed by scraping.
  5. With punch make hole in center of each flattened bottle caps.
  6. Cut a 5” piece of twine or cord. Tie a knot at one end and slip on bottle cap. Slip string through hole in pie tin and knot. Repeat until all caps are in place.

3. Wooden Bottle Cap Jingler

Materials you will need:

  • 1 block of wood, 6" by 1 1/2" by 3/4"
  • 6 metal bottle caps
  • 3 nails, each 1 1/2' long
  • Hammer
  • Pliers
  • Ice pick or punch

To Make:

  1. cut 2 3/4" handle at one end of wood (optional but nice for the finished piece)
  2. With pliers bend back bottle caps and flatten with hammer on hard surface.
  3. To remove cork scrape out or burn off over hear. (Burn out plastic) Adult only.
  4. With pick or punch make small hole in center of each bottle cap. Make sure the hole is wider than nail shank but smaller than the head .
  5. Place each nail through 2 caps, Position nails at equal intervals on wooden block making sure caps do not touch each other. Hammer nails in loosely so caps will jingle.

4. Rhythm Sticks

Material you will need:

  • 1 dowel, 12" long or branches from a tree. Select branches for hardness, straightness and size.
  • Saw
  • Sandpaper
  • Shellac,varnish, or paint for finish

To Make:

  1. Cut dowels or branches to 12" length.
  2. Sand rough edges for dowels. For branches peel off bark then sand.
  3. Shellac or paint to give nice finish.

To play: Hold one stick in each hand. Tap to keep time with the music.

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Comments (7)
#1 by Darlene McFarlane, Aug 30, 2007
More great ideas. My mom used to give my kids pot lids and mixing spoons to beat them with when they were babies. They loved them and we always knew where they were...we just followed the sound of their music.
#2 by Anne Crowder, Aug 31, 2007
This will be something my kids can do on a rainy day. They love banging pots and pans.
#3 by Nancy, Sep 2, 2007
We made these when my kids were little. They spent hours making music.
#4 by Martha Andrews, Sep 3, 2007
These are some easy projects for play time.
#5 by Doug, Sep 6, 2007
All kids love noise makers.
#6 by Hannah, Nov 5, 2007
Wonderful ideas to keep the kids busy, and so easy to make. Thank you.
#7 by Ruby Hawk, Dec 7, 2007
Thanks everyone. I hope these ideas will help you out with the kids.
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