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

I did a post earlier this year with activities and ideas for teaching the alphabet, but a lot or learning letters and recognizing them just has to do with seeing them and working with them a lot.

That means coloring, tracing, identifying things that start with different letters and more.

One way to reinforce the letters is through little activity books like these cute printable alphabet books from Life Over Cs.

These are available for free when you subscribe to her newsletter, and I’d say that’s well worth it if you have a little one (or a group of little ones!) working on the alphabet and letter recognition.

Each mini book includes a collection of things that start with that letter to color, color and read with words that start with the letter, tracing the letter, finding the letter in a grid and other coloring pages with objects that start with that letter.

These little books are super useful reinforcing the different letters and giving kids different activities related to the letters.

If you do a letter of the day or letter of the week you can use a new book for each one, and then keep the copies in your reading center or in a basket where kids can look at them again.

And of course you can add in all the other letter activities you like, go on a scavenger hunt for items that start with that letter, read alphabet books, practice writing letters in rice or with pompoms or playdough or whatever sensory activities you like.

You can grab the free printables when you enter you email address at Life Over Cs, and check out her other great alphabet resources and activities while you are over there.

Do you have favorite activities for teaching letters to kids? I’d love to hear about them!

[Photo: Life Over Cs]

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