Music Lab for Kids: Balloon Cup Shaker Drums

The Project: Drum/Shaker Instrument
This was an instrument that I kind of cobbled together from several different ideas of DIY instruments from household objects. I found a very cool drum made from a balloon stretched over the opening of a plastic cup, and that was going to be the project.

Think these, but made with Solo cups because tin cans are hard to find
these days and the edge can be dangerously sharp.

After I thought about the cup drums for a while, I thought about the big empty space inside the plastic cups. We had the large size already in the supply cabinet so that's the size I planned to use (think college dorm party Red Solo Cups), and that seemed like a waste of materials. So, I delved deep into the same closet and found a giant bag of uncooked rice. I figured if you add a handful of rice before stretching the balloon over the cup's opening, you'd have a drum AND a shaker!

The supplies for this project ended up being uncooked rice, large plastic cups, and balloons. We also needed scissors to cut the ends off the balloons. The picture shows rubber bands to keep the balloons on, but I didn't find rubber bands necessary when using plastic cups. Tip if you're thinking of doing this project: HAVE EXTRA BALLOONS AVAILABLE! I didn't realize it when I made my demo drum, but balloons have a tendency to break if you're stretching them in unnatural ways. I ended up having to leave the room during the program to grab more balloons, which is something I try my best not to do. 

Another tip that never even crossed my mind until it was a real-life situation: beware of latex allergies when working with balloons. There was one child who's mom had to do some quick redirecting when they realized the craft involved balloons because of skin allergies. I try to remember food allergies, but often forget there are other types of allergies that can be just as serious. Luckily, this particular mom was very adept at redirecting her kiddo without any kind of tantrum or hurt feelings. In the future, I plan to announce the supplies aloud in case a kiddo has an allergy or sensitivity.

Program Structure

I was much happier with the Music Lab program this month. In January, I structured it more like an instructional program where we made our instruments and then learned chants together as a group. Today, I put out a couple containers of instruments as well as the instrument-making station and structured the program as a drop-in. This worked better for me since Music Lab happens directly after Learn and Grow with Rhythm and Flow (LGRF) and it sometimes takes a few minutes to recover from high-energy storytimes like that. 

It also worked great for this craft in particular since it involved loose rice. I forgot that toddlers and any tiny, loose craft supply (rice, glitter, etc.) equals a big mess. Structuring the program this way allowed me to be in slightly more control of the rice and keep the mess in one area of the room for easier clean-up.

Before this morning, I was seriously considering cancelling future occurrences of program because it didn't have a solid direction and I wasn't sure it was a good library program. However, I got some great positive feedback from parents, singing the praises of the two programs together for their mix of education and entertainment. That coupled with a participant number over 70 has inspired me to keep Music Lab for Kids going for a few more months and see if it works out as a companion to LGRF. 

I wasn't able to take many pictures because the morning was very busy, but I did get these two. It was a fun morning and another learning experience as a still-pretty-new programming librarian!

 

Playing the drum!

Instrument free-play