Last year, students loved listening to Ada's Violin: The Story of the Recycled Orchestra of Paraguay, written by Susan Hood, which we read as a COCBA nominee. I mentioned that we should try to make our own instruments out of recycled material. We didn't have time last year, and one student remembered and asked about it on the first day of school and continued to ask every month! We finally got around to it in March.
In the meantime, I brought it lots of recycled cardboard like cracker boxes, cereal boxes, cardboared tubes, egg cartons, etc. The elastic bands are from the daily mail delivery to the office, so the only thing I had to buy was masking tape.
Before we started, the students watched Brain Pop videos about music and sound and shared what they had learned about sound in music class. Then they got busy! Students also discussed and practiced learning dispositions that are essential to maker projects, such as persistence, creativity, and flexibility.
Students played a short concert and reflected on the experience. We loved it!