We have teamed up with The Sound Collector to bring you some amazing ideas for craft and musical fun over the next few weeks. Today, we have a fabulous activity for you: a DIY kazoo! We love making loads of noise with the kids, and the kazoo is a perfect instrument for loads of fun with music and sound for those that love to sensory seek. We have a simple, but effective, set of instructions for you so you can learn how to make your own kazoo with the kids today.
Who is The Sound Collector?
The Sound Collector is a brand new TV series, and is, quite simply charming. We love the simplicity, and the whole idea of there being little pixies / fairies that are collectors. These wonderful magical people go around our world collecting things. This reminds me of some of the collections that neurodiverse children and adults love to have – including myself. Dragons are an important part of our lives at home 😂.
The Sound Collector is very small, and very good at not being seen. He lives with his friend and pet,
Mole, in a tiny house on the bank of a river. He is fascinated by sounds and spends his days collecting and using them. He has a huge collection of tapes in his house, and every day he packs a little bag with a selection of them, both pre-record and blank to take out with him.
What happens in The Sound Collector
There have always been Collectors, but they have become very rare, and humans hardly ever see them, much like pixies or fairies. Our Sound Collector is ageless, he might be 100s of years old, but has the heart and spirit of a child. He has carved out the perfect life for himself – spending each day doing what he loves, endlessly fascinated by the world around him.
The Sound Collector is hard of hearing, and his hearing aids, mic and headphones are integral to his appreciation of sound. He also has the superpower of being able to remove these and escape from a noise he doesn’t like, or to create complete peace for himself. While he’s aware that he can listen to the world around him with more than just his ears, he can occasionally become frustrated as certain sounds make things much harder for him. Whether he loves sound because of, or despite his hearing, it is the focus of his life in an incredibly positive way.
The concept of the sound collector will likely resonate with those who have sensory issue, or hearing difficulties; hopefully in a positive way. He seems to us to be rather a sound hero!
With Keira Knightley narrating the series, you can’t go wrong, can you?
DIY kazoo
We have a simple set of instructions for you to make your own kazoo courtesy of The Sound Collector. Why don’t you take a look here?
What do you need?
We have a sheet of A4 giving you all the details that you need to make your own kazoo – but before you start, here is a list of items you will need to make it:
- Drinking straw
- Scissors
- Wide rubber band
- Thin rubber band (2)
- Craft sticks or lolly pop sticks (2)
Once you have gathered all of the above, print out the sheet using the button below, or following are instructions on this article for the perfect DIY kazoo!
How to make your own DIY kazoo
- Cut two sections from the drinking straw which are c. 1.5 inches long,
- Wrap one of the craft sticks you have with the wide rubber band, lengthwise,
- Take one of the pieces of straw that you cut in step one, and put it under the wide rubber band at the end of the stick,
- Add the second craft stick on top of the first one, and secure in place with one of the smaller thin rubber bands,
- Put the second straw piece you cut on top of your big and wide rubber band. Make sure it is underneath the top stick though. This means that you will have one straw above the rubber band, and one below it,
- Put the other thin rubber band on the other end of the kazoo you are making. You will now have the straw, kazoo, and two thin rubber bands. This looks just like the illustration on the top of the instruction sheet.
All you need to do now is BLOW in the middle, and you have your kazoo!
To download the instructions, click on the button or the image below:
We’d love to have you come back on the site for more amazing ideas from us, The Sound Collector and beyond. Why not sign up below?
Thanks as always for stopping by for this DIY kazoo idea – and come back soon!
Helen
Helen
Helen is a mum to two, social media consultant, and website editor; and this site is (we think) the only Social Enterprise parenting magazine! Since giving up being a business analyst when juggling travel, work and kids proved too complicated, she founded KiddyCharts so she could be with her kids, and use those grey cells at the same time. KiddyCharts has reach of over 1.1million across social and the site. The blog works with big family brands (including travel) to help promote their services, as well as offering free resources to parents of kids under 10. It gives 51%+ profits to Reverence for Life, who fund a number of important initiatives in Africa, including bringing running water and basic equipment to a school in Tanzania. Helen has worked as a digital marketing consultant (IDM qualified) with various organisations, including Channel Mum, Truprint, Talk to Mums, and Micro Scooters. She loves to be creative in the brand campaigns she works on. Get in touch TODAY!