What You Need:

• paper plates
• a stapler
• crayons or markers
• dried beans, buttons, paper clips, or any other items you can use to fill noisemakers and create interesting sounds
• an empty oatmeal box
• empty film canisters
• tempera paint
• nontoxic white glue

What You Do Together:

1. Make paper-plate noisemakers! Invite your child to decorate the outside of two paper plates. Then partially fill one of the plates with dried beans, buttons, or paper clips, which will serve as the noisemakers. Together, cover the plate with the second plate and staple the two together.

2. Next, partially fill the oatmeal box and film canisters to make additional noisemakers. Your child can decorate the oatmeal box using tempera paint. To paint the film canisters, add a tablespoon of nontoxic white glue to a half cup of tempera paint. Stir and paint.

3. After you’ve assembled the noisemakers, experiment with them and compare the different sounds they make. Encourage your child to use descriptive words, such as loud, soft, or tingly.

4. Make music and march around the house! Use different sound makers as you march, or play a cassette with a strong beat and invite your child to march to the music, joining in with his own noisemaker.

More Ways to Learn

Make teeny-tiny noisemakers. Create quiet little cymbals by gluing buttons to the ends of two fingers cut from a rubber glove. Use two cotton swabs to make little rhythm sticks. Challenge your child to improvise and invent other small, quiet rhythm instruments. When the instruments are finished, you’re ready for a quiet march, using the tiniest sounds and the quietest teeny-tiny steps for marching!

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Take a look at the Spanish version of this activity.