the return of our pan pipes!

I think the children had more fun cutting the straws and watching them fly, than making their pan pipes. We forgot to plug up the bottoms, though we did pop some play dough in a few (which was super fun to blow out, of course). If you decide to make these, you can find the diy here. I recommend using masking tape as the washi tape peeled off a few hours later.

diy straw whistles {panpipes}

This was another one of our musical instrument activities to accompany The Listening Walk. I think the whistles were even more popular than the drums! Grab some straws and washi tape and try this at home!

For this project we used extra thick Boba straws in super happy colors, washi tape, and kiddo sized scissors. The children each cut two straws into two pieces and then arranged them from smallest to largest or as they kept saying smallest to tallest. I love the vivid colors of the straws coupled with the happiness of the tape. There are a few tutorials out there that involve taping up the bottoms of the straws or adding small holes to create different pitches. We did neither of those and still the children adored their whistles!

I mean. look at them! Soooo happy!

diy noisy tree

It looks like our fall apple tree has taken up permanent residence in our classroom. From apples to snowflakes to hearts the children love hanging bits of pretty on our tree. Our tree is made of two large sticks stuck into gravel and dirt. The tree takes a wee beating when the kiddos decide to pull the sticks out of the pot so I may need to go back to the drawing board and figure out something a little more permanent and a little less heavy.

For our week of The Listening Walk I set up our noisy tree by adding a small basket of noisy ornaments. There were bells on pipe cleaners and a disassembled dollar store bamboo wind chime ready to be placed on display. The best part? Being able to play the tree with a wooden spoon once all of our noisy ornaments were on it.