Make Music With Yogurt Bottle Maracas
Make mah-velous green (and cheap!) musical instruments.
Submitted by
Wade Wojcak
Wade Wojcak
Your little bambinos are going to cause a ruckus regardless, so you might as well make it a musical one! The sound of homemade maracas will be a lot more pleasant than that of your wedding china crashing onto the linoleum!
- Clean, empty, drinkable yogurt containers with lidsLet your kids know you're going to do something special with their empty yogurt containers, so they'd better drink up! A great way to gather your craft materials and ensure their calcium intake all in one!
- Noise-making materials such as pennies, rice, popcorn kernels, seeds, dried beans or pebblesIn fact, you should have your kids collect their pebbles from the yard… while you catch some rays.
- Duct tapeTo jazz things up, invest in colored duct tape. You can choose from 25 different colors at Tapebrothers. Silver duct tape is soooo 1990.
- Embellishments: Stickers, pom poms, ribbon or trim, rhinestones, buttons, anything snazzy…Some embellishments can be a choking hazard for little ones, so make sure only older kids make maracas with 3-D decorations!
- PaintThis is optional, but if you're feeling adventurous (i.e. you don't mind cleaning up a little paint!) you can let your kid paint the maracas to make them more festive.
- GlueThe plain old white stuff will do.
Toss the empty yogurt containers into the dishwasher to get them nice and clean. Make sure you get all the yogurt out because, believe us, you don't want to smell a month-old maraca that wasn't cleaned properly!
Gather your noise-making materials. Have your kids collect pebbles or case the cupboards for dried beans, rice, un-popped popcorn, etc. This is a great way to use up those year-old lentils you swore you'd make into homemade soup last winter!
Have the kids fill the yogurt containers with what they gathered.
Experiment with different materials. Changing the type and amount of the materials inside will change the sound the maracas make.
Tape the lids shut with the duct tape. If you want, you can cover the whole container with tape to make a multi-colored instrument in your child's favorite hues. Optionally, now is the time to paint the maracas and let them dry before you move on to the next step.
Dress up the maracas by letting your kids glue on embellishments. (Or you can hot glue them on if you've got a glue gun handy.) One can never use too many rhinestones on a musical instrument—just ask Liberace, who covered a whole piano in them! (Don't believe us? Check it out!.)
When the instruments are finished, form a family conga line and shake it! You can march your conga line around the house, up the stairs, down the block. It's a great way for you to get some cardio. Arriba!
- One instrument is never enough! Turn your family into the Partridges with a whole band full of Make Your Own Musical Instruments from Nick Jr.
Check out our Hispanic Heritage page for even more Hispanic Heritage content.
Submit!
