Daily Idea #144: Rain Sticks

I remember as kid trying to make a rain stick in my art class and while the process was fun, I never thought it really sounded like rain; the rice would just slide from one side of the tube to the other. With a little research (thanks to Pinterest), I have figured out how others have solved the very same issue and so today we are making rain sticks!

Items needed:

Paper Towel Tube

1/4 cup of dried rice

tin foil (2 pieces: one 10” long, one 7” long)

Tape

Broom handle and a wooden spoon handle

strong paper (like construction paper)

scissors

How to make a rain stick:

1) take the 10” piece of foil and twist it into a stick like shape

2) wrap this around the broom handle to make a spiral and carefully remove from the handle once it has its shape

3) take the 7” piece of foil and twist it into a thin wire shape

4) wrap this smaller one around the wooden spoon handle to make a spiral and carefully remove from the handle once it has its shape

5) insert the smaller spiral into the larger spiral

6) make your covers for the paper towel tube by tracing a the circle for each tube opening onto the thick paper. Then trace another circle 1” larger around the smaller two circles. Cut out the 2 large circles. Cut about 5-6 slits from the larger outer circle to the smaller inner circle

7) one circle gets attached to one end of the paper towel tube and secured by folding the flaps down onto the tube and taping the slits

8) insert the foil coils into the tube

9) add your rice

10) secure the other end of the tube with the second circle you cut out and tape it all up

you can decorate a piece of paper and tape it to exterior of the tube if you’d like, or you can leave the tube the way it is. Turn over and over and listen to the sound of the “rain”