Winter weather is always challenging with small children. Even with a mountain of recently new toys (AKA Christmas ... just two months ago) my girls still manage to complain about boredom. This is a fun little craft you can complete quickly and easily, with items found around your home.
What You Need:
- Toilet paper tubes – 1 per shaker
- Craft sticks – 1 per shaker
- Streamers, cut to length
- Rice, beans, pebbles, buttons, or anything you can find that makes noise
- Glue sticks
- Stapler
- Scissors
- Colorful paper – optional, but fun!
- Needle-nose Pliers – useful
What You Do:
1.) If you’re using craft paper, cut it to size and glue it to your toilet paper tube. Or you could color the tubes and decorate with stickers, newspaper, magazine pages ... anything! Just use your imagination!
2.) Next, staple one side of the tube closed, and fill with your noise-making material. I used rice.
3.) The next part is a little tricky. You need to insert the craft stick and the streamers into the open end of the tube, close the tube around the stick and streamers, and staple everything shut. My stapler was able to punch all the way through the craft stick, but it left sharp staple ends on the other side, so a pair of needle-nose pliers may be useful to get those pokey parts to lay flat. 
There you have it! Noisemakers with streamers! Now you can turn the music up and have a dance party!
Heather Bauer is the mother of two girls, ages 3 and 5, in Highlands Ranch. In an effort to cherish and document her daughters' early childhood years, Heather writes and shares ideas on how to make life with little ones fun, creative, and beautiful. Follow her blog, The Caterpillar Years, and connect with her on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram.
