DIY : Make an Oatmeal Box Drum

As part of our home school adventure we insisted that every child at least attempt some form of musical instrument. Beginning when they were quite young, we allowed them to experiment with different homemade instruments to see what they might be interested in doing later. Here is our project for making a drum out of an oatmeal container...

Start with an empty oatmeal container, the tall cardboard cylinder kind. If you want to make a smaller drum you can also use a cylinder of a salt container, or any other container that is shaped like a cylinder as long as it has a lid.

The first thing you will need to do is tape the lid on. Use masking tape to fasten it in place so that it doesn't come loose later on. If you are making several of these try putting a handful of crumpled newspaper inside at least one of them. If you have several, put different amounts of crumpled paper into each oatmeal box. It will change the sounds of the drums.

Now it's time to decorate the outside. You can use paint to cover the whole outside, (in the process covering up any labels on the container as well as the masking tape that you used to seal it). You could also use use Contact Paper, that sticky-backed shelf paper. Simply take a long strip of it the same height of your container, and roll it onto the container sticky side in.

Once you have a base coat of either Contact Paper or paint covering up the original labels, give your children a chance to decorate them using more paint or magic markers, or stickers, or whatever they prefer. (Or whatever you find appropriate for your child's age and ability.)

Once any decorations on them have had a chance to dry, you're ready to use your drums. If you have made several, give one to each child and create your own home band! For the drumsticks you can use the back end of a wooden spoon out of your kitchen. You can also experiment with different sounds by using different items for the sticks. For instance, the sounds will be different hitting them with a wooden spoon handle versus a metal spoon handle. Hitting them with a Lego block may make an entirely different sound.

Drums of different sizes will also make different sounds. Encourage your children to experiment by using different items for the sticks, and different size drums. If you have items in your house that are durable enough to be hit with homemade drumsticks allow them to compare to that as well. For instance an empty butter container with the lid put back on can also serve as a drum. They will find that it sounds different hitting the plastic than it does hitting the cardboard oatmeal container.

Creating your own homemade instruments is not only a great learning experience for your children, but it's also a lot of fun. Your oatmeal drum should be durable enough to last quite awhile even through the most rambunctious children. If you do need to make a new one some day, you can always use it as encouragement to get them to eat their oatmeal. Remember you can't make an oatmeal drum until you eat all the oatmeal in the box!

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