How to Make Chinese Rattle Drums to Celebrate the New Year

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Kids love toys that make noise! These simple Chinese rattle drums (pellet drums) are a fun craft that kids will love, but not too noisy where they are disruptive. They are great for celebrating Chinese New Year with a group of kids.

*We received some of the products free as part of the Oriental Trading Company ambassador program. All opinions are my own thoughts and experiences with the items used. Some of the links are affiliate links.

How to Easily Create Your Own Chinese Rattle Drums

One thing that I love, is that these diy Chinese drum kits are an affordable price and include most of what’s needed to make the craft. They are cute with foam dragon embellishments, but we decided to jazz them up even more.

Supplies:

Chinese Drum Kits
Glue Dots or Glue

Suggested Supplies:

Gold and/or red washi tape
Gold and/or red markers
Red or gold glitter glue
Metallic gold marker
Gold rolled jewels
Chinese New Year Character Symbols – print them here

→ Get Chinese New Year Supplies HERE.

Instructions:

The kids made one side with the foam sticker embellishments that came with the kits. On the other side, they glued on a Chinese New Year word each chose from the printables. An alternative to this would be to use a maker to write the symbol and add decorative designs instead. Some Chinese New Year symbols are: Good Luck or Fortune, Prosperity, Peace, Wisdom, Longevity, Courage, and Happiness.

Along the outer rim of the lid, the kids placed patterned gold washi tape, gold jewel strips, sparkly red glitter glue, and/or black construction paper.

Attach the black beads and string as shown in the instructions that come with the drum kit.

Use Glue Dots or hot glue to attach the red pom poms around the outside.

You can also use the gold washi tape to wrap around the black handle. It doesn’t stay on/stick very well, but makes it look more fun.

Now the DIY Chinese drums are ready to make some noise!

Celebrate Chinese New Year with these DIY Chinese Rattle Drum Noisemakers - Made with a craft kit

DIY Chinese Pellet Drum Tutorial for Kids featuring Chinese Characters

Chinese rattle drums are a traditional Chinese toy that are also called pellet drums. These hand drums are popular for use in ritual music. You hold the stick handle between your palms and twist. The black beads (pellets) create a noise when it hits the drum head on either side.

Check out our paper plate Chinese drums as an alternative to the Chinese rattle drums kit.

Amanda

Artsy Momma

Amanda is an ‘artsy momma’ to 2 kids who love making crafts just as much as she does. Follow their creative journey over on the blog titled Artsy Momma. Besides crafts, they share fun food ideas, hands-on learning activities, mommy DIY, + lots more! If you love handprint art, head over to their Fun Handprint Art blog where you will find hundreds of their projects all made with little hands and feet.