Noisy Week: Balloon/Tin Can Drums

We've had a couple of rainy days lately where we've been stuck in the house. The girls were a little bored so we decided to have a Noisy Day :) I hunted around the Internet and through all the craft books we have and found some instructions on making different types of instruments. Over the next few days, I will share with you our musical instruments, their instructions and the fun that the girls had with them :)

First they made these drums. I found the instructions on how to make these at Kids Activities Blog.

To make these drums, you will need some tin cans, balloons and whatever materials that you would like to decorate your cans with. You might also want some drum sticks, chopsticks, or something else to bang on the drum with, fingers also work good.

We used three sizes of cans, juice can, dog food can and soup can. Each size will give you a different sound.
Maddie decorated her cans with construction paper, that was glued onto the cans. They also coloured on the balloons. You could also paint the cans, glue decorations onto them or just leave them plain.

Cut the neck off the balloons and stretch them to fit over the open end of the can. Try to stretch the balloon as much as you can, but don't stretch too much or the balloon can rip. The tighter the balloon is stretched, the better drum sound you will get.

And now you have a drum, or three :)

 Sammie didn't want to decorate her drums, she just wanted to play with them :) Maddie used coloured construction paper that she folded to fit the cans and taped the paper to the cans.

These drums were fun to make and even more fun to play with :) Sammie loves banging away on her drums, making lots of music.

We have found that you have to be a little careful as to how hard you hit the balloons, as they will rip and break.  Putting two balloons on the can, one over top of the other, will make it a bit harder to break the balloon and make it more durable. We also found that is the largest can's balloon that keeps ripping and breaking, so maybe a larger balloon might work or a higher quality balloon.

Make sure you come back tomorrow when I will share another of our homemade musical instruments. What kind of instrument do you think we made next?

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