Easy Musical Instruments for Kids to Make

Making your own musical instruments is a lot of fun and something that some kids will do on their own without prompting. But these ideas for musical instruments that kids can make will inspire you and them to make music with things you probably already have around the house.

This spinning hand drum, for instance, is made with a cardboard tube and some flat cardboard, as well as basic crafting supplies. Get the instructions from Marcie in Mommyland. (I’ve done a similar drum with paper plates.) Or make a paper plate tambourine that’s an art project and musical instrument in one like this one from Kids Craft Room.

Take the shoebox guitar up a notch with these adorable jar lid banjos from The Craft Train. Kids will have as much fun embellishing them as they will playing them.

How about a thumb piano? This one from Thrifty Fun uses bobby pins and a block of wood, or you can make something similar with wooden sticks and a paper plate, as shown at Kodaly and Orff Music Teachers Blog.

Clapping sticks made from paint stirrers are also a fun project both to decorate and to play. Try painting the base color yourself and letting kids decorate with paint or paint pens to make the project go a little faster. Get all the details from Laughing Kids Learn.

How about a couple of xylophones? This idea of using wrenches is really fun, and it doesn’t harm the wrenches so you can still use them as tools when the kids are done playing. Get the instructions from De tout et de rien (instructions are in English and French).

Or try the old different levels of water in glasses experiment to make some pretty music. Still Playing School makes this one even more fun by adding food coloring to the water and taking the play to the light table. So pretty!

Using Music as Therapy In a world where life can get pretty overwhelming, we’re all on the lookout for ways to heal, find solace, and discover our true selves. And you know what? There’s something truly extraordinary that has been rocking our world for ages, and it goes by the name of music. Yep, you heard that right! Music has this incredible power to lift us up, inspire us, and even heal our souls. That’s why more and more therapists and healers are embracing music therapy as a way to tap into the transformative potential of melodies and beats.

Hand Held Music Maker

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Passover Seder Plate Crafts

I’m in deep denial about the fact that new year is almost upon us again! It’s been the fastest and the longest year at the same time, and I can look back and see some good things as well as some things I wish had gone differently.

Doing a year in review with your kids — whether in the classroom or at home — is a good way to capture some of their memories and the things they really liked about the year gone by.

There are a lot of different printable year in review worksheets you can use if you want to make this super easy. Here are links to a few (often part of larger posts about NYE celebrations with kids that are worth a read, too):

Teach Beside Me has lots of fun printables fro the end of the year, including a year in review that covers favorite memory, funniest memory and the best book they read, among other topics.
NurtureStore‘s version has space for a self-portrait and prompts like favorite toy, best day out this year and future dream job.
Remember favorites, their “best idea” of the year and have room for setting goals for next year with this one from The Keele Deal.
The year in review from Yes We Made This has room for drawing or writing and includes things like something they learned, a memory they made and a place they visited.

Of course you could pretty easily make your own year in review for the whole family to do that asks questions based on what you most want to remember. (Favorite video game? Best friend? Favorite family memory?)

And if after the year in review you’re ready to look ahead a bit, Mrs. Merry has new year’s resolution printables to inspired kids to look ahead and set goals for things they want to try. You can totally fill this one out as a grownup, too.

[Photo: Mrs. Merry]

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