Making musical shakers with little ones is such an easy activity with lots of play and learning potential. We have made many of these throughout the years, since Z was a baby but this week R and I made some musical shakers using pasta as the filler.
My focus with these toddler games with musical shakers was speech and language, although picking up the pasta pieces one by one and filling up the bottle is also great for developing fine motor skills and precision.
To make a basic musical shaker at home you will need a choice of container such as:
- Empty water, or other plastic drinks bottle – any size will do
- Empty coffee tin
- Cardboard tube (see this post from Kidspot on how to make a shaker with a cardboard tube)
- Any small boxes with lids
- A plastic egg that splits into two
You will also need a choice of fillings such as:
- Dry uncooked pasta
- Lentils
- Uncooked Chick Peas
- Uncooked Rice
- Uncooked dry beans
- Small pebbles
- Beads (large ones if you are worried your child will put them in their mouth)
- Marbles
- Glitter or sequins
The list of fillings could be really endless, you can try whatever you think would be good – and mix and match fillings within your musical shaker or stick to just one. You could make different musical shakers and compare their sounds. Of course, you will need to fix the lid on tightly once your toddler’s musical shaker has been filled.
I gave R pasta for his shaker, because the pieces are large enough for him to easily pick up by himself and place into the container. If you are using smaller items, like grains of rice or lentils you can set up the area with a funnel to pour the filling in to make the musical shaker.
While filling the bottle, you can use this as an opportunity to reinforce turn taking. We do this by saying out loud “R’s turn” & “Mum’s turn”. If your child is quite young and still developing very basic language it’s also a good opportunity to teach language like “more” while they add more filling to the shaker.
Learning the rhythm of turn taking is important in speech and language because in a conversation, each participant takes their turn to speak in a back and forth. So getting in to that routine of making a sound with the shaker, then waiting for the other person to make a sound, and then making your own sound again – this mimics conversational turn taking and can be helpful for a child’s early speech and language skills.
As parents, we do this naturally even with babies. We listen to them coo and babble, then we respond. Listen again, and respond again, and so on. This is turn taking in communication.
Once the shaker is made, you can have lots of noisy fun with it! (The tongue is R’s concentrating face! 😀 )
You can also add these to a nursery rhyme treasure basket.
We use the shakers to practise listening, by having R listen out for “Ready, Steady…GO” and then listening and responding to “stop” too. You can make this into a game, and sometimes use different words like “ready…steady…bananas!” to check if the child is listening.
We use the shakers to practise shaking fast, slow, noisy, and quietly. You can also use this to practise position words: shake high, shake low.
A fun song that you can use for shaking fast and slow is Twinkle Twinkle Traffic Lights.
Twinkle Twinkle Traffic Light Rhyme for Toddler Speech and Language
(try this fun traffic light craft with the kids too!)
Twinkle twinkle traffic light
On the corner shining bright(shaking normally for these two lines)
Red means stop (stop shaking), Green means GO! (shake fast)
Yellow means go but very slow (slow shaking)
Twinkle twinkle traffic light
On the corner shining bright. (shaking normal or fast for these last two lines)
You can also use shakers to make noise while you dance around or listen to any music that your child likes, using simple language to comment on what is happening.
How do games with musical instruments help your child’s speech and language development?
Language development is an important part of early childhood and impacts a child’s ability to learn in the future. So, how can playing with musical instruments help?
Making basic shakers as shown in this blog post gives a great opportunity for connection and communication with your little one, as well as encouraging listening skills which is really important for speech and language.
A toddler’s brain is in a critical stage of development, which means they need stimulation from many different sources to stimulate their brain. Studies have observed the effects of musical instruments on toddlers with speech and language delays or disorders with results showing that toddlers who used musical instruments had an overall better sense for phonetics (which is the study and analysis of speech sounds).
When children learn phonics, to get ready to learn how to read, the first phase focuses on listening and sounds before even touching on the concept of letters – because these skills are the foundation of everything that comes afterwards.
Music provides early developmental opportunities for the brain to learn and practice skills in an engaging way. Playing music with a toddler can also teach them about how different sounds go together to create melodies, as well as the importance of following a certain sequence of events or steps.
The exciting thing about this is that it’s not just about listening to music; it’s about creating it too!
More Music Activities for Toddlers
For more ideas have a look at these articles about making music with toddlers:
Pot of Gold Rainbow Shaker for Sensory Play
Syllable Sticks : a craft to help with clapping out syllables
Making a drum with your toddler
Egg Shaker Activities (these are a little more advanced)
Using Musical Instruments in Creative Play
You may also be interested in:
Helping your child’s speech and language development
For more simple speech and language ideas, follow our Pinterest board
Follow Anna – In The Playroom’s board Speech and language on Pinterest.
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Anna Marikar, mum of four and seasoned blogger, has spent over a decade sharing her parenting journey and passion for kid-friendly crafts and free printables.
Her easy-to-follow craft ideas and practical parenting advice have transformed In The Playroom into a cherished resource for parents.
Great fun! We loved making these when the children were younger, there are so many possibilities!
Such a great and creative way to have fun while learning!
What a great fun idea, and making it wit different things inside and comparing the sounds s a great way to get talking about things, Thanks
thats a very nice idea, i think i dont really have a good imagination, so will remember this one for the future
This is a really lovely activity Anna. We often make shakers at toddlers and it’s always a hugely popular activity. I love Twinkle Twinkle Traffic Light, I’m borrowing that one!
What a lovely activity Anna, great photos too xx
What a fun activity! When my son was little I remember making a rainmaker with him using a tube and rice. Love that you have used different containers and sound makers too.
Very good post, do love doing stuff like this especially with Millie .x
I love the idea of turning this into an activity – I’d have never thought of doing that, I would have just made the shakers up myself!
Looks like he is having a lot of fun playing with his homemade shaker. What a great idea!!
Loving the level of concentration on your little man’s face! Shakers are always an instant hit with kids and so easy to make!
we love that and we had made over 10. now we use it as bowling pin instead.
I keeo meaning to do an activity like this with the twins. They’d love counting the pieces in and love making noise 🙂 x
we have all loved to make these years ago and theres soo many options to put in them great post hun and fab pics x
Home made musical instruments were always a huge hit in our house
What a great fun idea. I bet different fillings make different sounds, are they?
We made some of these recently that I meant to blog, filled them with feathers and things and the baby loved trying to crawl after them 😀
I have been making some of these for F at the moment that I will be blogging about soon! I love the simple ideas, they have so much fun with them don’t they.
This looks so easy and so fun and yet something I have never done! I will have to give it a go! x
Great idea. I think I will make one of these for Baby tomorrow x
Such a simple but lovely idea. Love that rhyme too, not heard that before so will remember and sing it to my son. I think we will make one of these shakers too. Thank you
What a really wonderful, simple and enjoyable way to spend time with a young toddler or a child of any age. I love the focus on using the activity as an opportunity for talk and learning. Have pinned for later x
Now that looks like he is having fun! x
I love making these – we tend to use rice in ours
Love it! And Mr R is so adorable 🙂
so simple but so fun! x
Oooh how fantastic .. I love the new version of twinkle twinkle
Great post, and really simple to do too 🙂
We used to make these and even have one somewhere that’s two Muller light tubs sellotaped together with some pasta in it 😉
I love this idea! My toddler (21m) is into EVERYTHING — I think I’ll try filling the shaker with her.
Thanks for including songs, too! I need to expand my selection!
Great to see you linking up to The Thoughtful Spot!
Interesting! Simple play that inspires him to learn =)
PinItParty
Lucas says – Love this – it makes noise!!!!
Grace says – these are such a good idea – great job lil’ dude
Thanks for linking to #minicreations
Fantastic fun! Thanks for shaing at #Pintorials 🙂
This is a great idea! I know it would be fun to make noise with these!
Thank you for stopping by the Thoughtful Spot Weekly Blog Hop this week. We hope to see you drop by our neck of the woods next week!
Great post. Making shakers is so easy but provide so much entertainment and costs pennies. My kids love them
Some great ideas for games to play with the shakers. Should really make some for N then we can practice along to music as well as doing stop/go type activities.
Thanks for linking up to #MusicalExplorers linky
Love these ideas and so simple, looking forward to making shakers for my son when he’s a bit older. Tried it with a yoghurt pot and some rice a few weeks back when I was cooking – wasn’t really into it yet 🙂 xx #MusicalExplorers