Kitchen Musicians

Materials:

• Empty one-liter plastic soda bottles
• tape

Want some sweet music to accompany you while you cook? Our old babysitter, Betsy, told us to look no further than our recycling bin . . . and our young musicians. Here's her recommendation:

Take three one-liter plastic soda bottles and tape them together in a triangle. Then have your child put a small amount of water in one bottle (about half an inch), two inches in the next, and four inches in the next. Your child then blows over (and slightly into) the bottles. The bottle with the smaller amount of water will make a lower tone than those that contain more water.

Your child can experiment with different amounts of water, or with different configurations of bottles. Groups of kids can each make their own soda bottle instruments, then coordinate on a song or two.

And when the orchestra is done for the day, the members simply toss their instruments into the recycling bin. Bet the New York Philharmonic doesn't have it so easy!

More on: Activities for Children Ages 6-10

Excerpted from:

© 2005 by Steve and Ruth Bennett. Excerpted from 365 Unplugged Family Fun Activities with permission of its publisher, Perseus Books Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

To order this book visit perseusbooksgroup.com.