Homemade Maracas – Recycled Craft for Cinco de Mayo
Can you guess what we used to make these homemade maracas?
Plastic eggs! Such a great way to recycle all those Easter eggs into something fun. We made ours as a Cinco de Mayo kids craft. They aren’t the traditional colors associated with the holiday because we wanted to use the tape we already had on hand. Instead you could make them the colors of the Flag of Mexico (green, white, and red).
Supplies needed:
- Plastic eggs
- Paper straw
- Decorative tape – duck tape, washi, or similar
- Filler – such as rice, beans, beads
How to make maracas from plastic eggs:
- We filled our eggs with lentils.
- Cut the straws in half.
- Tape the straw to the bottom of the egg.
- Since the paper straw isn’t sturdy, I would recommend covering the entire straw. Wrap it around a few times.
- Wrap tape around the crack where the 2 egg halves meet..
- Let the kids decorate them with the tape. You could wrap the tape around it evenly or cut strips for the kids to place on until there are no spaces showing.
All 4 kids enjoyed picking which patterned tape to use next. I lucked out and found cute mini tapes on clearance at our grocery store. They worked better for wrapping around the eggs because they are thin. The rainbow duck tape made some wrinkles on the curved areas since it is a bit thicker.
What homemade music toys have you made? I would love to see them and pin them to our frugal fun & recycled crafts for kids board on Pinterest!
What a great way to reuse plastic eggs. My two young ones will love shaking and dancing with these! 🙂
Thanks Jamie! Loving all your recycled crafts too 🙂