I have mentioned before how much Rory loves music. She is always asking to play my guitar and loved her Easter basket filled with musical instruments.
At a recent dinner with our friends, we couldn’t pull Rory away from the piano and drums! Although she has many musical instruments in the house, she doesn’t have a set of maracas. I knew Rory would love them because Rory has a lot of shaker toys, and (somedays) they are a big hit!
To make the maracas we used:
- mini water bottles- emptied
- beads (or beans, just something to put in the water bottles that will make a fun noise when your little one shakes them up!)
- tape
- a paper towel roll, or toilet paper
- crayons or markers to decorate (these are optional)
Once we drank all the water from the bottles, we filled them up with some pretty red beads, shells, and gold stars. You can put as many beads as you want in them.
Rory loved grabbing the red beads since red is her favorite color, and putting all the beads in the water bottle is great for hand eye coordination! When you are finished putting all your beads and other shakers in, just make sure to screw the top back on the bottle!
Because I didn't want the maracas to have paper towel roll colored handles, we decided to color on some paper to use as decoration.
I took the paper towel roll and cut it down the center so I could wrap it around the mouth of the bottle. Wrap the paper towel roll over the mouth of the bottle, ours over lapped a few times.
Once you have the paper towel roll wrapped around the mouth of the water bottle, add some tape so the paper towel roll sticks together. I added a little tape connecting the top of the water bottle to the drawing (just because I know Rory is a little rough on her toys).
I measured Rory's drawing so that it fit the size of the paper towel roll, and with glue, wrapped them around the paper towel roll.
For a change of pace, I put two water bottle maracas on one paper towel holder.
We now have new musical instruments in our house, and Rory could not love them more!
Kids love making music so the Quirky Mommas have a few others musical posts to share with you.
- Play with Recycled Items – make a musical station
- Preschool Music Activities
- Alphabet Musical Chairs
