Submitted by Betty Barnes, Astoria, Oregon
Idea posted July 2, 2002
My third graders are just finishing up their rain sticks, and they have turned out great and sound wonderful.
We used tubes from the local theater that they get movie posters in. They are very heavy-duty and good sized. Instead of pounding nails, we stuffed them with the plastic rings that hold six-packs of pop together. With some experimenting, I found that seven or eight of them fastened together at the ends with a twist tie (so you have a long string of plastic) gives the right amount of interference for the rice to flow through the tube. We fastened each end to the tube so it would stay stretched out. One cup of rice seems to be the right amount of rice for our tubes, and it really sounds nice. Being from Oregon, we feel we are somewhat the rain sound experts. :-)
We are now painting them, and they are looking really cool. It was my first time to attempt this project and it's been a lot of fun.
(I cut circles two inches wider than the ends of the tube out of tag board which we put over the ends to seal them off.)