Friday, August 5, 2011

"Go Make Music" Shakers

As I have mentioned before my son absolutely LOVES The Biscuit Brothers and they teach children in their show about music and encourage kids at the end of the show to "Go Make Music."  Taking on that concept B and I made some musical shakers as a craft activity one afternoon.

I got the idea for the shakers from a toddler activity book we had and went to work.  I took 4 bowls, added rubbing alcohol and food coloring to each bowl and then added some macaroni and rice. 


 

I let the pasta and rice sit for a few hours to allow them to absorb as much color as they could.  Next, drain the liquid and let the pasta and rice dry on foil or wax paper.




After the liquid was mostly gone, I threw away the foil and let the pasta and rice dry some more on paper plates.  I wanted them to be completely dried out so that no moisture would get in the bottles.
 
Next I took an empty soda bottle, rinsed it out, let it dry and took off the outside label.
B and I picked out the pasta and put the pasta into one bottle. It helped B practice some fine gross motor skills and we also worked on learning colors when putting the pasta into the bottle. After all the pieces were in, I put some super glue inside the capped and screwed it on.  Shaker is done!

The next day I made a rice shaker (needed to drink another soda first!).  I love how the colors turned out using brown rice. I added some plain white rice for another color too.

B loves to play with both shakes and "Go Make Music".  When he uses the shakes we talk about loud and soft sounds.  I am thinking about making the pasta shakers for his 2nd birthday party in a few months. I think kids of all ages will have fun putting the different colored pasta inside and shaking away.

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