The credit for today’s simple project goes to my 6-year old daughter! She told me she wanted to make a tambourine, scrounged through art supply central at home, and came up with this a few minutes later.
4 things I like about this project: 1) Unlike the paper plate versions, this tambourine uses a plastic oatmeal container lid that won’t buckle or tear; 2) The surface of the oatmeal container lid makes the instrument sound more drum-like (and thus more like a real tambourine); 3) The bells are threaded through pipe cleaner pieces and attached with tape. This made it possible for her to make the project with zero adult assistance; Finally, 4) My kid’s a crafter! SUCH a proud mom right now.
Inspired by her project, I developed a slightly fancier version. It is a little more work, but the threading part of the project really helps build those fine motor skills.
You’ll need:
- 1 large oatmeal or yogurt container lid
- 3 jingle bells
- 3 pieces of pipe cleaner
- 2 ribbons
- Hole punch
- Tape
First, punch 7 holes around the perimeter of an oatmeal or yogurt lid. Thread the ribbon through the holes, ending with all the ribbons meeting in the bottom-most hole.
Quick hint for threading floppy ribbon through holes…create a “needle” using masking tape. When you’re finished, just unwrap the making tape, or cut it off the ribbon entirely.
Thread a jingle bell onto a piece of pipe cleaner, fold it into a U, and and insert both ends into a pair of holes. Unfold the ends of the pipe cleaner and secure them to the back of the lid with tape. Repeat these steps with the remaining 2 bells.
Your tambourine is finished!
Looking for some musical accompaniment? How about this rockin’ Medieval lute project?
The hummingbirds were created by Katie. Aren’t they cute? She made a green version modeled after the ruby-throated hummingbird, and a purple version modeled after the violet sabrewing hummingbird.
To make a hummingbird, glue a thin black construction paper beak onto a large (1.5″ diameter) pom-pom. Glue a smaller (.75″) pom-pom underneath the beak. Add a pair of small wiggle eyes and 2 feathery wings and you’re set!
Then, slowly, and oh-so-quietly, kids and their bears went in search of their hummingbirds.
Looking for more feathered friends? Check out this 
We recommend Rub-a-Dub Sub, written by Linda Ashman, and illustrated by Jeff Mack (Harcourt, 2003). Zooming around in an orange submarine, a little boy encounters numerous ocean creatures – a seal, a manta ray, a horseshoe crab, and an eel to name a few! But an encounter with an enormous shark forces him to quickly retrace his steps to the surface, where he finds himself safe and sound – in his very own bathtub.
Next, turn the cups end-to-end and connect them together with hot glue. If you can’t do hot glue, simply connect the cups with tape. We used black masking tape for the photo below, but regular tape works just as well.
For the paper towel tube version of the project, cut the holes in the bottoms of the cups. Then place a piece of paper towel tube inside the bottom cup (our tube piece was 6.75″ long but you might have to adjust yours a little). Place the second cup over top of the first…
Then hot glue (or tape) the two cups together. So…is the extra effort for the paper towel version worth it? You decide! Here’s a side-by-side comparison of the 2 projects. One could argue that the paper towel tube version looks more like a spyglass, but the cups-only version is cute too.
Next, cut a periscope shape out of construction paper, tab the bottom, and attach the periscope to the top of the sub. Finally, use markers to give your sub portholes, plates, rivets, and bolts. Any markers will do, but we really liked how silver metallic marker looked on the black paper cups.
Miss Marissa designed this awesome project, and she made a fantastic I-Spy game to go with it! To play, print up the characters in this template (click 