Noisemaker for New Years

Recommended Age Group: 18 months +

Materials Required:

• Empty Christmas Wrapping Paper Roll or Wrapping Paper Roll
• Dry Beans and Rice
• Poster Paints and brush
• Heavy Masking Tape (2” wide)

Instructions:
You finally have a use for the old wrapping paper tubes left after all of the Christmas present wrapping – use them for New Years! Teach your child about the celebration of New Years by making a festive noise maker.

Start with your Empty Wrapping Paper Roll. Place a piece of heavy masking tape over one end of the tube. Be sure it covers the hole completely and wraps neatly all the way over. Then, take another longer piece and run it around the diameter of the roll to secure the edges of the first piece of tape in place. Leave the second side open for now.

Pour about a cup’s worth of beans and rice into your noise maker. Plan on some of them sticking to the masking tape inside the tube, which is fine. Then, once you have a suitable amount of noisemakers inside the tube, seal off the other end using the same masking tape technique.

Now you are ready to decorate your tube. Use the poster paints, or finger paints for younger children, to paint the tube. Help your child paint all the way around the tube and even over the masking tape at the ends. Consider using traditional New Years colors of blue, silver, and white or make it useful for all the major holidays this season with an assortment of red and green. You can even write or draw something on the tube using a black marker.

Once the tube is painted, allow it to dry completely. Once it is dry, your noise maker is ready to go. Let your child turn it, shake it, and pound it (gently) to help ring in the New Year. You can make as many noisemakers as you have empty tubes, so help your child make one for every member of the family!