diy balloon {shaker} drums

 

We spent a week with the book The Listening Walk. We talked a lot about our senses especially our sense of hearing. So, for the week we set out to make as many musical instruments as possible (which wasn't that many but the heart and soul was there). Our first foray into instrument making was our balloon drum/shakers.

 

The children painted their cans first. We added a bit of soap to the paint to help it stick to the cans but that did not work too well so we had to add a coating of mod podge. The parts of the can that did not get mod podged flaked a lot. I'm thinking maybe some glue added to the paint will help. Tucking that into my cap for next year. After the cans dried (the next class day) the children did some scooping, pouring, dropping, and dumping of assorted noise-making elements such as popcorn kernals, dried beans, cut straws, and lentils.

 After selecting a balloon, we cut off the bottom and S T R E T C H E D the top portion over the cans (this part took a lot of help from me). We used these happy polka dotted balloons.

And then it was time to put on our rock n' roll mix and get to it! The children loved both shaking and playing their drums...they even asked if they could hold them for rest time. We had so much fun!