Create the sound of falling rain with these simple foil covered, cardboard “rain sticks”.
Traditional rain sticks are instruments made with hollow cacti, thorns and lava pebbles, and are used in some cultures to invoke the rain spirits. Ours are simplified rain sticks, and I’m not sure how effective they’d be for calling up any spirits but they were fun to make, and they sound lovely when you up-end them.
When I say ours our “simplified”, I mean that we didn’t put nearly as many nails (or tacks) into them as we should have. To see how it’s really done, check out this how-to over at Planting Ideas. It requires many more nails than what we used, which would slow the flow of the materials inside, producing a longer and gentler sound.
I think ours turned out just great for the hooligans though, and the process was easy, using materials we already had on hand.
Rainstick supplies:
- cardboard tube (long, sturdy ones work best) * see my note further down in the post
- aluminum foil
- watered down glue (or modpodge)
- coloured tissue paper
- nails (or tacks)
- filler: rice, corn kernels, small buttons, pony beads etc
*I suppose you could use a paper towel roll for this project, but I’m thinking it might be too flimsy. We used some sturdy rolls that had once held plastic wrap (i.e. Saran Wrap) and aluminum foil, and I also had a long, sturdy tube that a poster came packaged in.
Because some of our tubes were too small in diameter to insert nails into, without them poking out the other side, I brainstormed up a couple of alternatives: thumb-tacks and brass-tacks.
What to do:
Push, hammer or tap your tacks and nails into the tube. (I made small cuts with an exact-o knife to insert the brass-tacks into).
Once you have all of your nails and tacks in, (remember: more is better than less), roll your tube up in aluminum foil.
Give a good squeeze all the way around so the foil is tight to the tube, and stuff the excess at ONE of the ends into the the tube, plugging that end good and tight with foil (see the cover photo for this post).
Now, pour your filler items (beads/rice/small corn kernels etc.) into the open end of the tube. Keep your items small (rice is ideal) so they don’t get jammed between the nails and tacks. Now seal up the open end just like you sealed the bottom.
To decorate our rain sticks, we brushed then with some watered down white glue, and then covered them with squares of coloured tissue paper, giving the tissue a light coating of the watered down glue.
When they were dry, we jazzed them up with covered them craft-foam stickers. The hooligans love these things because, well, what kid doesn’t love a sticker? And I love them because peeling the backs off the stickers gives little fingers a real fine-motor work out.
When you’re finished decorating your rain stick, tip it end to end, and hear how the rice, cascading through the tube, sounds like the soft, soothing pitter-patter of rain. 
For more of our simple Springtime creations using craft foam, check our Styro-framed art and our rainbow collages.
If this is your first visit to Happy Hooligans, I’d love for you to pop over and LIKE us on facebook. I update my page daily with easy and affordable arts, crafts and play ideas.
You can follow me on Pinterest too! I have over 90 boards dedicated to all kinds of kids’ crafts and activities, as well as some personal interest boards too.
See you there!
