Your guide to activities and fun things to do with your preschoolers, toddlers and kids in kansas city, KS

Making Great Music Together.

by Jenny Meade

March 02, 2009

Remember when your little ones would sit on the kitchen floor and be entertained with wooden spoons and pots and pans to bang on? If you could stand it, they'd sit there endlessly banging and drumming and making noises without any type of real musical instrument - just found items in your cupboards.  And then you probably discovered that wooden spoons on tupperware makes an interesting and satisfying noise, too, and not nearly so hard on your own shredded nerves at that giant copper soup pot.

 It's still easy to make music at home with your kids. And it doesn't have to be much more sophisticated than banging on pots, either.  Here's a few ideas for musical instruments you can make at home.

Fill an empty plastic water bottle with dried black eyed peas. Add a tiny bit of glue to the screw tracks of the lid before you put it back on, then you'll know it will stay sealed and you won't have beans flying allover the house.  You can do the same with a small butter tub, and even a paper envelope to get different tones and pitches.  You can use an empty paper towel role and tape the ends with duct tape. A Pringles can makes a great noise, too. And for an clangier pitch, you can put some beans in an aluminum can, just be sure to put duct tape over the top so no little fingers get sliced on the mouthpiece.  Then just shake away!