We had so much fun making these with my son’s first grade class last year, I just couldn’t resist reposting it here. These DIY Maracas are just the thing you need to get into the Cinco de Mayo spirit. Shake your maracas along to festive Mexican music at your Cinco de Mayo party. It is simple to make your own maracas out of water bottles in this Cinco de Mayo craft.
Younger kids will need adult assistance with this craft. Older elementary school kids can probably do it all by themselves. Filling water bottles with different sorts of beans and rice to make a variety of sounds is fun. Use funnels to fill the bottles faster and with less mess. Use the duck tape and an empty cardboard toilet paper roll to make a secure handle. Let the kids decorate them with colorful paints. Once they are dry, have everyone shake their maracas to see who can be the loudest!
You could easily make it into a fun game. Play music and let the kids shake the maracas to the beat. Have a contest to see who can shake their maracas the loudest and/or the quietest. Listen to the different sounds maracas can make. We used a variety of dried beans in some maracas and plain uncooked rice in others. The maracas make very different sounds depending on what is inside.
Click here for downloadable direction: How to make Maracas
What You’ll Need:
- Empty water bottle with lid (tip: make sure it’s dry inside)
- Dried Beans or Rice
- Funnel
- Duck Tape (tip: colorful duck tape makes the maracas look festive)
- Empty cardboard toilet tissue roll
- Optional: Colorful acrylic paints and paintbrushes
- Use a funnel to fill the empty water bottle with dried rice and/or beans about halfway to three-quarters of the way full. An all-rice bottle will make a very different sound when you shake it than an all-beans bottle. Have fun experimenting to find the sound you want.
- Tightly close the water bottle with the lid.
- Use scissors to cut a straight line down the length of a cardboard toilet tissue roll. Make a handle out of the cardboard roll by attaching it to your bottle like this: Start at the lid of the water bottle and tightly wrap the cardboard roll around it. Mine went around about one and a half times. It all depends on the size of your bottle’s opening. There’s no wrong way to do it, just be sure to wrap the cardboard tightly so it creates a sturdy handle.
- Keep a good hold on the roll handle while you secure it with duck tape around it. Be sure to start taping above where the cardboard roll meets the water bottle so that it will stay attached. Wrap duck tape all the way down the cardboard roll. When you reach the end of the handle, cut it off.
- Use another piece (about 2 inches long) of duck tape to cover the hole at the bottom of the handle. I just squeezed our roll shut at the bottom and stuck a piece of tape from one side to the other.
That’s really all there is to it. Your homemade maraca is ready to play at a Cinco de Mayo party!
If you want, you can decorate your maraca with colorful paint, stickers, sticky foam or whatever you can imagine.
Let me know if you have any questions about how to make this Cinco de Mayo craft. See this and other fun craft ideas when you follow me on Pinterest.
Another fun Cinco de Mayo craft idea is to make a pinata out of a balloon. Click here —> DIY Pinata Tutorial.
Alison Gibb says
This is a really cool idea!! Kids love anything that makes noise!!