How to make a shaker

August 26, 2019 By Kate 1 Comment

This post may contain affiliate links. I may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post at no cost to you.

This 10 minute paper roll shaker is a fun musical instrument craft for preschoolers which they can make themselves with a little bit of help.

We originally shared this DIY musical shaker back in 2013 – my kids are now much bigger! *sob*. I’ve decided to reshare it for our readers today.

Easy toilet roll shakers you can make in 10 minutes at home from recyclables. Such a fun, quick and easy craft idea that is also a DIY toy. #shakers #preschool #kidscrafts #musicalinstrument #diymusicalinstrument #craftykids #paperrolls #cardboardtubes #recyclingcrafts #toiletrolls #thecrafttrain

One day my daughter came home from pre-school showing off a fancy toilet roll shaker she had made. She danced around the house shaking it with a huge smile on her face for quite a while.

Her sister goes to the same pre school but is in a different class and didn’t get to make a shaker, so quite understandably she was green with envy.

Fights ensued and I’m sure you get the picture without further details. To keep her happy we decided to make some more shakers, but we did ours a little bit differently to the pre school versions (however beautiful they were).

Seriously, you can make these in 10 mins or less with items you likely have on hand. The best part is they are made mostly from recycled materials.

We tried filling our shakers with different things to experiment with different sounds. What nose does coffee beans make, compared with rice, compared with dried lentils?

How to make a shaker

You will need

Toilet rolls (1 per shaker). Paint them beforehand for coloured shakers.
Duct or electrical tape (the thin kind)
Milk bottle caps (2 per shaker)
Sharpie markers
Dried beans, rice, coffee beans or similar to make the shaking sound
Paints if desired, although they aren’t really necessary

How to

Stick a milk bottle cap on to the end of a toilet roll with electrical (or duct) tape.

Fill your toilet roll with the dried beans (we used coffee beans and rice in ours).

Tape another lid on to the other end of the toilet roll enclosing the beans. Make patterns by adding extra stripes of tape in another colour..

Finish it off by decorating in between the tape gaps with a black marker.

The kids can help out with these and make their own patterns.

You’re done! now all you need to do is ….

Shake & dance!

More DIY musical instruments kids can make

Make a mini banjo from a recycled jar lid

How many instruments can you make from a paper cup?

Make some mini shakers from duct tape and bottle caps

These jingly ribbon dancers are so quick and easy to make!

Comments

1
Darlene says
June 18, 2015 at 4:19 am
Hi Kate. Love your tp roll project. We would be delighted if you would stop by the Creative Challenge party and link up your shakers. This month’s challenge is to creative something form toilet paper rolls. Hope to see you there. Best wishes, Darlene
Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply