Skip to main content

Thunder Drum! (and a touch of color)

Image
By

Today we added a "Thunder Drum" to our outdoor music space. We first heard about these wonderful instruments from Teacher Tom, who passed along the idea from Jenny over at Let the Children Play.  We had an old metal garbage can.  The one we had needed a little bit of love and some "real" work.

As you can see, ours was a bulging outward on the bottom.
So, we used the hammers to send that bulge down into the can.
Once we were happy with how the bulge looked, we tested it for sound. It sure did sound like thunder!

When the children were napping, I gave the drum a fresh coat of silver paint. 
(Rustoleum brand to try to slow the rust.)

Then, after nap the children went crazy with acrylic paints, giving our whole music area a touch of color






I love how bright and cheery everything looks with a bit of color, I think I like the chimes the best!

Have you been inspired to create music outdoors yet? I've posted quite a few times on this subject and have collected numerous sources of inspiration.  If you have an outdoor music idea, please feel free to add it to the list!
Labels:

Comments

rachelle | tinkerlab said…
Spray painting during naps! Amy, when do you rest? I love the music-making blog hop and need to find some time to scope these ideas out. You're an amazing resource!! (oh, and I'll be back one day to add our own creations to the list).
May 17, 2011 at 11:33 PM
Amy A @ Child Central Station said…
The spray painting only took a few minutes. I actually spent a good portion of nap time in the hammock today ;).
May 17, 2011 at 11:48 PM
Anonymous said…
My girls would go crazy over something like this but I think our neighbors and all the nieghborhood dogs might not approve.
I would love for my daughter's school to have this but they are in a pretty residential area too. Do you have neighbors that you had to discuss this with? Or am I overestimating as to how loud these things really are?
May 19, 2011 at 7:44 AM
Amy A @ Child Central Station said…
Abbie- We can make quite a bit o noise with all of the instruments and children playing all at once. We are very cognizant of what time we use the instruments. We have not had any complaints from the neighbors. We live in a college town, and our home was a student rental prior to having us move in. The neighbors are so happy to have us making noise during the day rather than the crazy parties and night time noise (with lots of complaints involving the police) in the past. Having the wooden fence does help contain some of the noise and sight too, but the music does travel!
May 19, 2011 at 8:26 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Easter Egg Caterpillars!

By
OOOPS! This post has moved, please click on the photo to be redirected!
16 comments
Read more

My friend died

By
 I learned a hell of a lot from Dan Hodgins.  He was mentor, a friend, and a "bone shaker" for many of us in the field of Early Childhood Education. He was and will always be a champion for children, and protector of childhood.   I have so many great memories of time spent with him, it just doesn't seem like we had enough time. Dan died this past Saturday.  Interestingly enough, Dan and I talked about death quite a bit. It is one of those topics that isn't talked about all that much in our field, but is super important. All living things eat, all living things poop, and all living things die.  Dan and I recorded a podcast for awhile called "Shaking Bones." Dan was always shaking bones, even before I met him. To say I was honored to be asked to be his co-host would be putting it lightly. I loved recording with him. He was never afraid to touch on topics that were a bit edgy, or issues that sometimes weren't talked about much at all.  We even...
3 comments
Read more

A Few Ideas With Marker Caps (As Promised)

By
Yesterday, I hope I convinced you not to throw away your markers that "don't work." Today, I will share with you a few ideas for what to do with all of the caps. The possibilities are nearly endless, but here are a few of our recent creations: 1) A Leprechaun/Fairy Ladder/Rope Ladder: 2) #1 if not permanently secured can also double as a rope bridge: 3) #1/#2 can also be made into a train track for your homemade trains :). (No photo available) 4) You can use them as beads for a necklace: 5) You could make them into a wind chime. (No photo available). 6. You can use them as small manipulatives to count, sort, and make patterns with. (No photo available). 7) You could use them as playing pieces in your own homemade board game. (No photo available). 8) You could put them on a wire and glue them in place to make a twirling whirly-gig. 9) You could top them with a lid from a milk jug to make tiny tables or toadstools. 10) You could make them...
15 comments
Read more