Colorful musical shakers are easy for kids to make with recyclables and rice. Support music activities in your daily schedule with these simple homemade instruments. Making music with kids has never been easier or more fun!

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Music and movement just got a whole lot more fun with simple shakers kids can easily make!

The shakers are made with recycled laundry bottle tops. 

Whether you schedule music activities in the classroom, or dance spontaneously to a favorite tune on the radio, it's beneficial to introduce music as part of your daily routine.

Music supports language (rhyming lyrics), fine motor (playing instruments) and social and cognitive skills (playing instruments and learning new songs together). 

These simple musical shakers are an awesome prompt for making music with kids, inviting kids to jump, twirl, and keep the beat with a shake-shake-shake of the homemade instruments.

Homemade musical shakers

Supplies for shakers

• liquid laundry detergent caps

• narrow curling ribbon

• rice

• glue gun

• duct tape

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This craft is made with the caps from laundry detergent bottles. The caps on different brands of liquid laundry detergent are slightly different in size and can be pushed together for a tight fit.

• If you don't have bottle caps that fit one inside the other you can glue and/or tape the caps together.

Instructions for shakers

 1. Add a handful of rice to the larger laundry bottle top. Push the smaller bottle top firmly into the larger one.

• When pushed together, the tops are difficult to pull apart. You can make an additional seal with tape or a glue gun once the rice is added.

If you stick with a favorite brand of laundry soap, ask friends and family to save bottle tops from other brands.

Experiment with the laundry tops to see which ones fit together securely. 

Caps that fit snugly one inside the other make it easy for kids to help with creating these instruments, but you can use caps that simple rest one on top of the other.

• The blue shaker on the right, and the second one from the left, are made by securing the caps together with duct tape.
• You can also reinforce with a glue gun first, then add the the tape.

Combine different colors, or use the same color for both parts of the shaker.

Decorate with tape or stickers to make the shakers festive!

Pick up your shaker and keep the beat with a shake-shake-shake.

Make your music and movement play times a lot more fun with these homemade shakers!

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