How to Design Musical Instruments for Kids in the Fourth Grade

A fun music lesson for fourth graders is learning how to make instruments out of everyday objects. It is an interactive craft project that can be used again and again by students. Once your fourth graders have made their instruments, let them play a song or two together as a class. Not only will this project teach students how instruments are made, but it will teach them to look at old objects in new ways.

Gather 16 glass soda bottle caps.

Hammer a nail into the center of each bottle cap to create a hole.

Place stacks of four bottle caps on the top half of a 1-foot piece of wood that is at least 2 inches thick. Keep a 1/2 inch space between each stack of bottle caps.

Place a 2-inch long nail through each stack of bottle caps, and then hammer it into the wood. Don't hammer it all the way in. There should be room for the bottle caps to move when the wood is shaken.

Shake the wood to hear the clinking sound your new instrument makes.

Take the cardboard cylinder out of the center of a roll of paper towels.

Place a small square of wax paper over one of the cardboard cylinder's openings. Secure the wax paper with tape.

Punch three holes in a vertical line on one side of the cardboard cylinder. Use the tip of a pen or pencil to make the holes.

Blow into the uncovered opening of the cardboard cylinder to hear the noise that comes out.