Recommended Age: 3 to 5 years
Purpose: To expose the child to a variety of musical instruments and sounds
Level of Parent Involvement: Low, the adult must give the child instructions to complete this activity
Prerequisites
- None
Materials
- Paper towel roll
- A piece of paper (A4 or construction paper)
- A piece of aluminium foil (about the size of an A4 piece of paper)
- Glad wrap
- Rice (or dried lentils, macaroni etc)
- Spoon
- Funnel (optional)
- Sticky tape
- Texta’s (or crayons/pencils)
- Stickers (optional)
- Tray to keep the materials
Preparation
- Prepare the above materials, placing them on a tray
Steps
- Invite the child, letting them know that you will be showing them how to make rain sticks
- Show the child the tray with the materials, the child may bring the tray to their table
- Have a conversation with the child about what rain sticks are (a type of musical instrument which make a sound reminiscent of rain falling)
- Invite the child to draw/decorate one side of the paper (note; only about 1/3 of the end of the page will show once wrapped around the paper towel cylinder)
- Take the aluminium foil and invite the child to scrunch it up, keeping its length
- The child may place the aluminium foil into the paper towel cylinder (the aluminium foil will act as a barrier to keep the rice falling at a slow rate)
- Show the child how to place a piece of glad wrap over one end of the cylinder and secure with sticky tape
- Invite the child to place one spoonful of the rice into the cylinder (using the funnel if you have one)
- The chid may now seal the other end with the glad wrap and tape
- The child may continue decorating the rain stick
- When finished, notice with the child the sound the rain stick makes as you tip the stick back and forth
Variations
- None
