Materials Needed:

• 1 cardboard poster tube, any length (for kids, the shorter the better, or it takes too long).

• Lots of nails, as long as the diameter of the poster tube.

• 1 skein yarn, any color (the variegated colors look cool); or fabric, or paper to cover the outside.

• Glue, water, and a small bowl.

• 1-2 cups kidney, lima, navy, black or pinto beans, or chick peas, or pebbles (anything that rattles).

Finished Rainstick

Rainstick Supplies

1. Take the poster tube, and find the seam that spirals from one end to the other. Drive nails through the seam, evenly spaced apart, starting about an inch and a half from the end. Drive the nails straight so that they are imbedded in the opposite side, but so they do not actually poke through the cardboard. See pictures above and to left. Make sure the caps at both ends still go on.

2. Add beans. Experiment with the type of beans until you get a sound you like. We tried mixing bean types, too.

Lay the end of the yarn on one end of the tube, with about two inches of it pointing down the tube toward the other end. Start wrapping the yarn around and around the tube, covering the end as you go. Make sure that the yarn that you use has been soaked in glue; once you use up the first bunch that you soaked in glue, pull out more yarn and soak that before wrapping it around the tube. Continue doing this until the rainstick is covered. See picture on right. (Just a tip - make sure you wrap the yarn tightly, especially as you go over the heads of the nails. Also, depending on the color of your poster tube, white yarn may take on the color of the cardboard beneath it, as you see my white yarn did below. White also shows rust from the nails. Darker colors work better.)

If you want to change colors to create stripes, cut the yarn and start a new color like you did at the beginning, wrapping the yarn over the ends of the old color and the new color as you go.

Another tip: don't let the yarn on the tube get too wet. Run your hands over the wrapped yarn to wring out the excess moisture from time to time. If it gets too wet, the glue will soak through the tube to the beans inside.

When you get to the other end, wrap all the way up to the end, then cut the yarn. Wrap the yarn as close to the end as possible, then tuck the excess inside the cap. Glue the caps on on both ends. Use a little extra glue on the last strand of yarn at each end for safety's sake.

Let the rainstick stand on its end in the sink overnight to dry. Then admire and enjoy!