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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How to Make Paper Plate Snowflake Art

Holidays are a great time to pull in some themed STEM projects. Even kids who aren’t usually into science can get excited about making a reindeer fly or making a Christmas tree out of 3D shapes. Check out these fun Christmas STEM activities to try in your classroom or at home.

Speaking of making reindeer fly, there are lots of different takes on this engineering challenge. In the instructions from The Educator’s Spin on it, kids make a reindeer from recycled materials, then use a string to make it “fly.” You can also do this with a balloon, like in this version from Team Cartwright.

And that Christmas tree project? That one is from Steamsational, and it calls for making a bunch of 3D triangles you then assemble into a tree. The post includes all the tips you’ll need and a printable template for making the triangles.

Another cute idea from Steamsational is making Santa’s sleigh out of an egg carton. Give kids design challenges such as that Santa must stay in the sleigh, it should be able to move and pull weight. It’s so fun to see what kids come up with.

Science Sparks has a printable book full of Christmas-themed experiments with templates kids can cut out and use to make spinning sleighs, shadow puppets, a paper tube to test how much weight it can hold and more. These activities are really low prep beyond the printing, so they’re great when you need to fill a little time at home or at school.

If you have Legos and jingle bells you can make a simple engineering challenge by having kids build mazes that the bells can roll through. Get the details from Innovation Kids Lab. (And check out this fun book of Lego Christmas ornaments!)

Of course you can also put a Christmas spin on classic STEM activities, like making a baking soda volcano in a plastic or glass ball ornament (Little Bins for Little Hands), red and green magic milk (Fun Learning for Kids), Borax crystal ornaments (Go Science Kids) and more!

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