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Blakelyn and Ava worked super hard to create a drum kit. They had maracas, a rain stick, a drum, and even wind chimes using items from around their home!

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Baron used tongue depressors, rubber bands, and a Rubbermaid container to create a guitar. He even demonstrated how to play Hot Cross Buns on it!

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Max brought some egg shakers that sounded terrific!

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August made a washboard that worked great! She took an old air register and some paint shims and spray painted them teal. Using the paint shims, she could create rhythms to accompany our music.

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Hudson shows his maracas he made using Easter eggs and beans.

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Max worked hard to make his own guitar.  He can even play Hot Cross Buns using the strings!

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Maverick worked super hard to make this homemade guitar out of wood, screws, and a kitty litter box!

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Adam had a fantastic time playing his homemade egg shaker during class!

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Katelynn had another harp made this week, but she said it broke, so she worked really hard and came up with another great instrument! She used 3 layers of carboard, paint, screws, and yarn and came up with this fantastic harp.

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Logan created a multi-purpose instrument. With his instrument, he used a wooden bucket as his base. He placed rubber band across the diameter of the bucket. He used a pick to strum the bands like a guitar, played the base like a drum, and even realized you could strum the bands on the bottom like a guiro!

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Using lots of ingenuity, Lila created a Guitar with a tissue box and paper. She used rubber bands for her strings and even had a strap that she could wear around her body with velcro on it.

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Raylan created this ukulele with his family. It looks like a real ukulele and even had guitar strings on it!

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Jasmine made a maraca from a plastic egg and beans. She showed us several different ways to create sound using her maraca.

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Hadley made a combo instrument. She added strings on the top to be plucked. In the bottom is a can with a balloon stretched across that can be used as a drum.

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Jesse and his family made a string instrument. They used weed eater strings for the actual strings of the instrument.

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Aaron made a drum using a shoe box. It has a sound hole on the other side.

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Kinser made this awesome African drum to honor his aunt, Megan. Megan goes to Africa to do mission work every year!

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Brody made a trumpet out of a piece of paper.

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Hadley made a pan pipe using straws and popsicle sticks.

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Heaven made a pan pipe out of cake stabilizers, hot glue, and ribbon

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Silvia made this guitar with her father. The construction of the guitar was incredibly sturdy and used real guitar strings that vibrated when plucked.

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Drake made a whistle out of construction paper.

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Hayden created a pan pipe out of straws and tape.

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Ben shows us how he can play his paper whistle

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Make a drum using items you have at home!

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Make a drum using items you have at home!

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OK Go Sandbox is an online resource for educators that uses OK Go's music videos as starting points for integrated guided inquiry challenges allowing students to explore various STEAM concepts.

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Make these instruments that actually make sound!

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Make these instruments that actually make sound!

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5 DIY Musical Instruments That Actually Work

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Recycle some materials and make new instruments!

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Recycle some materials and make new instruments!

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by Tamara Habchi, May 28, 2020 . 4 min read

Although many parents have found the iPad to be a good substitute for parenting, there are those who believe that DIY crafts make more balanced human beings in the long run.

It's also a great preventative measure for the dreaded Gear Acquisition Syndrome . And that's why we're going to outline how to make your own instruments from recycled materials so your little ones can join the next jam session.

You need some beats, baby. Fortunately, it's not rocket science to make a drum out of waste materials, so let's have a look at how to get that kick and snare going.

1. Split the cork cap into halves using the knife

2. Pierce a hole in each half and stick in the skewers

3. Glue the holes so the skewers are held in place

4. Cut the paper with the scissors and glue it onto the sides of the can

5. Cut the tube off the balloon and stretch it over the bottom of the can

We've got a beat going but it needs a bit of percussion, so let's start with some shakers. These are easy to make as long as you have a container and some small bits and pieces.

1. Wash the bottle so the label comes off

2. Fill the bottle with the plastic bits

3. Screw the bottle cap back on tight

4. Cut out an appropriate amount of paper

5. Glue the paper on to the sides of the bottle

We need something to make the transitions in the song pop. When the chorus hits, people need to know. And for that purpose, we have to make some crashing cymbals.

1. Create two handles out of the duct tape.

2. Tape each handle to the appropriate metal plate.

To wrap up our rhythm section we need something a little higher pitched than the other percussion instruments. Good thing we know how to make a tambourine as well.

1. Put the plates together

2. Use the pencil to mark where you intend to make the holes

3. Punch those holes with the hole puncher

4. Cut a piece of yarn for each of the holes you've made

5. Tie a jingle bell to each hole using the yarn

6. Fill the tambourine with pebbles before you tie the last knot

Ahh, yes. The instrument we've all been waiting for. Let's see if we can make a Les Paul using some paper, plastic, and a healthy dose of creativity.

1. Cut a soundhole in the lid from one of the boxes

2. Make six small holes for the strings under the soundhole

3. Cut two pieces of cardboard off the other box and make six similar holes in each

4. Feed the elastic bands (strings) through the holes

5. Glue both pieces to the lid from the first box

6. Use duct tape to unite the box and the box lid

7. Add the cardboard tube to the top of the box for a neck

And that, kids, is how to make your own instruments from recycled materials. Greta Thunberg would be proud. Know of any instruments we didn't cover here? Drop a comment below!

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How to Make Your Own Instruments From Recycled Materials

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by Tamara Habchi, May 28, 2020 . 4 min read Although many parents have found the iPad to be a good substitute for parenting, there are those who believe that DIY crafts make more balanced human beings in the long run. It's also a great preventative measure for the dreaded Gear Acquisition Syndrome .

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Here is my first Tot Tool - homemade musical instruments.

I will share what I did, but for more detailed instructions see DK's 101 Great Science Experiments, A step by step guide

I attached a length of wood (that I let Malachi paint) to a plastic container by cutting two "I" shapes under the rim of the tub opposite each other. I bent the flaps of the "I" shapes out and pushed the end of the wood through the holes. I then used colored tape to decorate the tub and make the lines on the wood. Originally, I stretched a balloon over the tub and taped it to the sides, but the balloon broke. So I took the lid to the tub and cut it to fit inside and taped it to the wood. Then I took eyelet screws and partly screwed them into the wood - four at each end. Then I made two triangular bridges of card stock. I made four strings from fishing line and tied them to the two sets of eyelet screws. I inserted the bridges under the strings and turned the eyelet screws to tighten the strings. I added colorful ribbon and stars to decorate it. I taught the little ones how to hold a string down to change its note and that the lines are where you press the strings.

For the xylophone, I cut out 2 zig zag patterns out of cardboard 8.5 inches long, and 2 flat ends, one 6 inches long and one 4.5 inches long and fitted the pieces together. I had Malachi paint it and then glued felt to the top once it was dry. Finally, we glued colored pencils, sharpened to size, to the frame. (They made a prettier sound when they were just rested on the frame, but I knew we would lose them.) I made beaters from wooden skewers and beads.

For the horn, I pushed a funnel into 30 inches of plastic tubing. I put tape around the end for a mouthpiece, and looped the hose and added strips of tape to hold and decorate it. I added a cord with tassels for decoration.

Beat Some Drums!

For the drum, I decorated a cookie tin with colored tape, stretched a giant balloon (I used a punch ball) over the tin and taped it. I taped a thick cord with tassels on the opposite sides of the tin for decoration.

For the tom-tom, I took two plastic containers (I used bowls because I could not find plastic flowerpots) and using one, I drew two circles on a piece of muslin. Then I drew two larger circles around each one. I taped the pots together with colored tape. Then I cut out the circles of muslin and cut slits in each edge, as far as the second circle. I folded in and glued the flaps of both circles. Then with a hole punch, I made evenly spaced holes around the edges. I then thread thin cord through the holes and placed a circle over each pot. I then pulled the cord tight and tied it. I zigzagged more cord through the cords at the edges of the circles, pulled it tight and tied it. Then, I was supposed to spread glue over each circle, but I forgot this part! When the glue is dry, the tom-tom is ready! Tightening the cord stretches the muslin and gives the tom-tom a higher note.

These were fun to build and the kids love them! I am hoping to make a song notebook like the one that Carisa has here. Check out her Tools for Tots posts for more Tot Tool ideas!

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Here is my first Tot Tool - homemade musical instruments. I will share what I did, but for more detailed instructions see DK's 101 Great Science Experiments, A step by step guide I attached a length of wood (that I let Malachi paint) to a plastic container by cutting two "I" shapes under the rim of the tub opposite each other.

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The drinking straw flute was such a success, I was anxious for my son to make another instrument. When I found instructions to make palm pipes out of PVC, I knew my son would be psyched.

We started with one 5-foot length of ½-inch cold water PVC pipe (price: less than $2). My husband cut it into the following lengths:

With some fine-grit sandpaper, we smoothed the edges a bit.

When my son came home from school, we read a whimsical book by Steven Kellogg. His account of the Pied Piper's journey and magical flute was wonderful with playful illustrations that added to our enjoyment of the story.

Now it was time to make some beautiful music of our own. When my son saw the lengths of pipe I put on the table, I could see the wheels in his brain turning. He thought we should tap them together to make music. I explained that these were pipes. When he lined them up longest to shortest, he figured we were just making another pan pipe to blow into. All good conclusions ... but wrong.

Before I revealed how to play these pipes, we ran a few pieces of painters tape around each and used different colored permanent markers to add stripes in different colors.

Then I told him to place letter stickers on each and told him the order of the letters. These letters were the music notes each pipe would play.

With our pipes colored and labeled, there was nothing left to do but play them. That's when I told my son to pick a pipe and tap one end of it against the palm of his hand. WHOA! The sound plays a music note, with each pipe being tuned according to their lengths.

"Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do" he played. To keep our pipes from rolling all over the table, I placed a kitchen towel underneath them. Then he tried his hand (literally) at "My Country Tis of Thee" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" using the notes included with the instructions I used.

This was a riot!! Our toddler had fun with them. My husband had fun with them (tapping them in syncopated rhythm against his thighs). And that night before reading with my son, I had fun with them too, using them to make sound effects to accompany an impromptu poem about a leaky faucet, light and heavy rain, etc. These are a blast!!

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The drinking straw flute was such a success, I was anxious for my son to make another instrument. When I found instructions to make palm pipes out of PVC, I knew my son would be psyched. We started with one 5-foot length of ½-inch cold water PVC pipe (price: less than $2).