Summer Rain Stick
Difficulty: Average
Age: 7 and up
Average User Rating:
Parental supervision is recommended
Get kids into the summer spirit by making a summer rain stick. This is a cool craft that uses a cardboard mailing tube and uncooked beans to recreate the soothing sounds of a summer downpour.
Check out our selection of other great Summer Crafts and Camp Crafts for even more ideas for fun activities for kids.
What you'll need:
- Mailing tube with removable lid
- Pale pink craft paint
- Light blue craft paint
- Mint green craft paint
- Pale yellow craft paint
- Paintbrush
- Small dish of water
- 16 (2 1/2") screws
- Hammer
- Screwdriver
- Hot glue gun and glue sticks
- 2 strips of pink ribbon, 18" long
- 2 strips of yellow ribbon, 18" long
- 2 strips of blue ribbon, 18" long
- Scissors
- 3 cups of hard beans (i.e. pinto beans)
How to make it:
- Paint (with craft paint) horizontal stripes all the way down the mailing tube with a paintbrush. Make sure you rinse the brush well between colors in the small water dish. Go in this color order: light blue paint, pale pink paint, pale yellow paint.
- After the paint has dried, paint mint green vertical stripes on top of the light blue stripes.
- Allow the green paint to dry.
- Using a hammer, pound the first half inch of the screw into the mailing tube. Do this with all 16 screws. Make them spiral around the tube, about one and a half inches apart.
- After all of the screws are slightly pounded in, use the screwdriver and finish screwing the screws into the tube.
- Using the hot glue gun, go around each of the screws to ensure that all of them stay in place.
- Fill the tube with the three cups of beans.
- Hot glue the strips of ribbon into the lid of the mailing tube, going in this order: pink, yellow, blue, pink, yellow, blue.
- Hot glue the lid to the mailing tube.
Tips:
You can use whatever colors of paint and ribbons that you want. Make different patterns with the paint and the screws. Be creative!!!
