How to Use Chicken Wire to Make Rain Sticks

If you have a rainy afternoon to kill, you can make a rain stick and replicate the music of nature. Easy to assemble and decorate, this version uses chicken wire to help make the tinkling sounds rain sticks are known for.

Things You'll Need

• Cardboard tube
• Construction paper
• 2 rubber bands
• Chicken wire
• Scissors
• String
• Filler (beans, rice or popcorn kernels)
• Paint
• Markers

Instructions

1. Unroll your chicken wire. Cut a strip of wire as wide and long as your tube with scissors or wire cutters. Tie a string onto one end of the strip to help pull the wire through the tube.

2. Insert wire into tube by letting the string fall through one open end. Bend pieces of wire to fit into the tube. Spiral the wire as you feed it into the tube by pulling on the string.

3. Cut two circles out of the construction paper about 1 inch wider than the opening of your tube. Wrap one circle around one end of your tube. Secure this with a rubber band.

4. Add some filler. Use your hand to cover the other end of the tube, and then turn the tube over.

5. Listen to the sound. If you want the filler to move more slowly through the tube, add another strip of wire. If you want more sound, add more filler.

6. Fasten the other circle of construction paper with a rubber band to cover the open end of the tube.

7. Decorate the outside of the tube with paint or markers.

Tips & Warnings

• Encourage kids to make a few rain sticks using different fillers in varying amounts and with wire strips. Each rain stick will make a slightly different sound.

• Paper towel tubes are the easy to find, but the more sturdy mailing or wrapping paper tubes will keep the chicken wire from poking through.