New Year's Eve Craft- Noise Maker Shakers

Recently we had the little boy next door over to play. I thought it would be fun for he and JDaniel to make New Year's Eve noise maker shakers. They had the best time trying to decide what to add to their bottles to make them look nice and make a lot of noise.

Here are the supplies we used to make the New Year's Eve noise maker shakers:

one bag of mixed beans

muffin tin

chopsticks (optional)

empty water bottles

sparkly pom-poms

sparkly pipe cleaners

sparkly ribbon or rickrack

How did we make it? 

Before the boy next door came over I had JDaniel sort the mixed beans into groups in a muffin tin. While he sorted them, I talked to him about how the size of the beans he would add to his shaker would determine the sounds the shaker made and the space that they took up in the water bottle.

I had JDaniel use a pair of his chopsticks to move the beans from the bowl to the muffin tin. He needs to work on his fine motor skills related to holding a pencil and holding chopsticks works on those same skills.

JDaniel was very interested in what each bean was called and what we would use to make. I told him that the the chickpeas were used to make hummus and the kidney beans were used when we made chili. We decided to try using all the beans that we didn't use in the New Year's Eve noise maker shakers to make the soup recipe on the back of the bag of beans.

When the little boy next door arrived, they both dug into the beans and the pom-poms and started adding them to their bottles.

JDaniel's bottle didn't have a flat bottom. It kept wiggling around. I gave him a silicone cupcake liner to put his bottle in. It seems to help him keep the bottle vertical and less frustrated.

As both boys added beans and pom- poms to their bottles, I reviewed the need to not fill the bottle with too many beans if they wanted their noise maker shakers to make loud noises.  We also reviewed what each type of beans was.

When it was time to add the pipe cleaners, the boy next door went with the curve the pipe cleaner before adding it to your bottle. JDaniel went with the jam the pipe cleaner into the bottle approach. The pipe cleaners were supposed to represent streaking fireworks. I guess that there isn't a wrong way to display fireworks.

After placing caps on their shakers, the boys selected the ribbons they wanted on their bottles. Neither boys has mastered tying bows so, I helped them out. JDaniel wanted his ribbons at the top and the boy next door wanted one at the top and one at the bottle's middle.

I think they did a great job on their New Year's noise maker shakers. It was fun to tie learning into creating them.

What kind of noise maker will you use to celebrate New Year's Eve with?