Today's Summer Daily Fun

Musical Instruments

Create some music with instruments you make:  Start out with some easy ones (see below) and then check on the internet for instructions on how to make other ones.  Soon you'll have a band!

Make Some Maracas:

• Get two styrofoam cups.
• Put two teaspoons of uncooked rice in one cup.
• Put the empty cup on top of the cup with the rice in it with the holes facing each other (tops of cups face each other).  Then tape the two cups together securely with masking tape.
• Decorate the cups with crayons or colorful paint.  When you're finished decorating, grasp the cups near the center where the masking tape is and shake!

Coffee Can Drums:

• Find an empty coffee can with a plastic lid.  If you don't have a coffee can, use any discarded container with a plastic lid.
• You'll also need construction paper, glue & scissors, paint & brushes or markers, and dowels or sticks from trees in the park (for drum sticks).  Use string, leather, feathers, beads - any bits of scrap material you might have to use to decorate your drum.
• Either paint the can with paint or cover the can with construction paper.  Leave the plastic lid on the can for your drum head.  If you cover the can with construction paper, you can paint or draw designs and creatures on the drum.  Look at pictures of different kinds of drums and the images found on them.  For a different looking drum, try covering the can with aluminum foil.
• Drum away on your new drum!  Try pounding the bottom of the can with a rubber mallet to make a Carribean-style steel drum sound.

Tissue Box Guitar:

• Find an old shoe box, retangular tissue box, or other cardboard box.  A tissue box with an oval hole in the top is the easiest.  Otherwise, ask for help from your folks cutting an oval-shaped hole in the top.
• Stretch a few rubber bands the long way around the box and over the hole.  Tape the rubber bands down on the back side of the box so they don't fly off while you're playing.
• Put a pencil or small dowel (or any kind of stick) under the rubber bands below the hole in the box.  The side where the rubber band is will be the bottom of the guitar.
• If you like, tape on a paper towel tube for a handle and decorate it any way you like.
• Have fun playing!

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