Listen to the Rain: Make a Rain Stick {Virtual Book Club for Kids}

I picked up some more of Bill Martin Jr books from the library and decided to do another activity.

One book we picked up is Listen to the Rain. Since monsoon season just ended for us here, this book was perfect! We decided to make a rain stick!

What you need:

• 1 paper towel roll
• aluminum foil
• cardstock (to cut out circles)
• tape  (not pictured)
• markers
• dried beans

1.
color the paper towel roll

2. cut aluminum foil. I made ours about a few inches longer than the tube and wide enough to line the inside, but crumpled. I did this when Nikolai was coloring the tube. We have the extra long foil, so it needed to be trimmed down. Good thing aluminum foil can help sharpen scissors! 

3. Trace ends of paper towel roll on cardstock. If I were to do this again, I would have had Nikolai color the cardstock first. Cut out circles about an inch - 2 inches bigger than the traced circle. Then cut towards the traced circle, this will help it fold onto the end of the tube. I didn't take pictures. :( If you look carefully at the picture of the supplies, you can see the lines that I drew (we were talking about the sun at this point in time.)

4. insert foil into tube. I crunched up the foil so it fit into the roll, and worked it around so the beans could move somewhat freely from end to end. I was a little fearful of them not moving. Nikolai and I played looking through the roll at each other a bit. :)

5. place one cardstock on an end and fold the flaps. Tape securely onto the roll 

6. fill the roll with beans. We used about a tablespoon of lentils and about a tablespoon of beans. That was more than enough, we probably could have done about a teaspoon (a few of each bean). I let Nikolai pick what beans he wanted to use. I was going to have him spoon them in, but he wanted to pick them up with his fingers! Score for fine motor work! :)

7. place the other piece of the cardstock on the open end, fold down flaps and tape in place.

Nikolai had so much fun playing with the rain stick. He would not set it down for the rest of the day, except to eat and use the bathroom thankfully!  Here is a video of Nikolai playing with the stick right after we made it. He wanted to show it to his Daddy when he got home from work, he was so proud of it! :)

While reading "Listen to the Rain" we practiced making the rain stick sound quiet and loud with the story. For the thunder we made thunder sounds with a flimsy cookie sheet I have. Needless to say, Samara was not so fond of the thunder sounds...

I just love this kid!

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see you next time,