Infusing crafts into your homeschool can bring the learning to life... and perhaps make a mess, but that aside, here's a fun DIY craft to make if you are learning about instruments, sound, the weather, or the rain forest. Make your own rain stick!
WHAT ARE RAIN STICKS?
According to NASA Climate, rain sticks ''are traditionally made from dead cactus tubes with cactus spines hammered to the inside and filled with tiny pebbles. The origin of the rainstick is not fully known, but many people think that it probably came from a group of indigenous people known as the Diaguita from the deserts of northern Chile.''
Because rain sticks likely originated in or around Latin America, they are the perfect craft to make as we wrapped up a unit study on the rain forest, which is what we have been learning about recently in our homeschool.
However, making your own rain stick would be a fun craft to make if you are learning about sound, instruments, the weather... or just because you have a stash of paper towel tubes in your craft closet! (ha!)
RAIN STICK CRAFT
- applique pins
- paper towel roll
- Duct tape
- Stickers/ Decorative Items
- rice
HOW TO MAKE A RAINSTICK
It's a simple project to do! Might be a bit rough on the fingers, but simply begin by pushing straight pins all around the outside of your paper towel roll. Don't be 'stingy' either--- fill it up!
Leave about an inch at both ends untouched by pins.
After you have pushed plenty of pins into your paper towel tube and your little fingers are a bit sore, secure the pins by covering the outside of your roll with duct tape.
Also fold in one paper towel end and tape it with duct tape.
Use a measuring cup to pour rice into your tube. I am not sure how much we filled it with...
Tape up the other end with duct tape and start decorating the outside! You could decorate the outside with stickers, yarn, paint, pictures, or words that reflect on why you made a rain stick.
For instance, if you make your own rain stick because you are learning about the weather, you could have your child paint the outside to reflect a storm, or cover it with weather stickers.
As I mentioned above, we made this rainstick craft after we spent time learning about rainforests. We could have decorated it with greenery or stickers of animals we might find there. However, we used stick-on sparkly gems!
When you are all done, try out the sound of your new rain stick by tilting it upside down and letting the rain (aka rice) fall down between the needles.
