a craft-y morning making music + 4 books we love: the beauty of music translated to words
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Ivy and Angus love making music and even though it can get loud—overwhelmingly loud—I love it too, because I know it makes them happy. They do have some simple percussion toys, but they prefer to pull out all the pots and pans or make random objects into drums.
On a recent rainy day, we decided to use some of our unlimited collection of cardboard tubes to make music shakers (inspired by Picklebums). If you're looking for an activity that's interesting, fun and a bit of a brain stretcher for littlies, I can recommend this one, it was great for us.
Here's what we used:
- Cardboard tubes
- Noisemakers of choice (ours were buttons, chickpeas, beans, popcorn kernels, rice and salt, but nearly anything would work)
- Stapler and tape for the ends
- Stickers, coloured tape and markers (or anything) for decoration
And here's how to put it all together (the making is a fun activity in itself!):
First up, you staple one end of the tube to close it off (if using small objects for filling it’s a good idea to put some tape over the end to stop things falling out as you go), and fill it with the noisemakers....
Staple/tape the other end closed in the opposite direction....
Decorate....
And you're done—ready to make music. (Or eat the art a-la-Angus!)
After the photo op, they both had a great time moving around, making music and exploring the different sounds that came from each filling.
We do, of course, have books that we love about the beauty of music—like these:
I've tagged the post for 2 to 6-year-olds, but the books (they're all wonderful) could extend through to older children. And if you have suggestions for other music crafts or books I'd love to know about them!
