Rain Stick Craft for Kids

Rain sticks are those fun instruments that you turn upside down to make it sound like rain. Today I’m showing you how to make kid-friendly rain sticks that actually work. Note: You’ll find more weather-related activities on my Weather Unit Study page. Ever Free Coloring

To make these rain sticks, we gathered the following supplies:
- Paper towel roll
- Aluminum foil
- Rice
- Clear tape
- Wooden spoon
- Broom handle
- Colored paper
- Optional: Funnel

Instructions:

Step 1: We started by tearing a sheet of foil about 10″ long.

Step 2: We twisted the foil into a stick-like shape.

Step 3: And we wrapped it around the handle of a broom to make a spiral.

Step 4: Then we tore a small piece of foil about 7″ long.

Step 5: We twisted this piece of foil into a skinny, wire-like shape.

Step 6: We wrapped this thin piece of foil around the handle of a wooden spoon in order to make a tight spiral. Tinkerbell coloring pages

Step 7: We then inserted the smaller spiral into the larger spiral.
Note: This is the key step that makes the rain stick work.

Step 8: Next, we placed the end of the paper towel roll onto a sheet of paper and traced a circle around it. We did this twice (once for each end).

Step 9: We then drew a bigger circle around the small circles we had just drawn.

Step 10: We cut out the larger circles, and used scissors to make a lot of cuts from the edge of the paper to the inner circle.

Step 11: We then taped the paper to the end of the paper towel roll, wrapping the flaps we had cut up the sides of the tube and securing them with clear tape.

Step 12: Once one end of the tube was secured, we inserted the two foil spirals we had created.

Step 13: Then we added about 1/4 cup of dried rice to the tube.

Step 14: We then secured the other end of the tube with the other circle of paper we had cut.

Step 15: We used lots of tape to make sure everything stayed together.

Step 16: We then wrapped a sheet of colored paper around the outside of the tube to make it bright and colorful.

Step 17: The kids decorated their rain sticks with markers and rubber bands.

And then the rain dance began!