🎵 Make a Rice Shaker

Hacemos una Maraca

🎵 Music MU.K.1MU.K.2
🖨️ Print

Objective: Child makes a homemade shaker and explores loud/soft and fast/slow sounds while keeping a beat to a song.

⏱️ ~30 min 🧺 2 min setup · music· building

🧺 Materials

  • an empty water bottle or yogurt cup with lid
  • a handful of dry rice or dry beans
  • tape
  • optional: stickers or markers to decorate

📋 Instructions (parent)

  1. Let your child pour a small handful of rice into the empty bottle or cup.
  2. Seal the lid tightly and wrap tape around it so the rice stays inside, then shake to test the sound.
  3. Decorate the maraca with stickers or markers and give it a name.
  4. Shake softly ('suave') and then loudly ('fuerte'), then fast and then slow, naming each sound.
  5. Sing a familiar song like 'Los pollitos dicen' or 'De colores' and shake the maraca on the beat.
  6. Take turns: one person sings while the other plays the maraca, then switch.

➕ Extension ideas

  • Make a second shaker with beans and compare which one sounds higher or lower.
  • Start a tiny family band where each person makes a different shaker and plays together.

🗣️ Parent script — say it in Spanish

Español
¡Vamos a hacer nuestra propia maraca! Pon un poquito de arroz adentro, cerramos bien la tapa y... ¡a sonar! Puedes tocar suave, suave, y ahora ¡fuerte! Vamos a cantar y mover la maraca con la música. ¿Cómo se va a llamar tu maraca?

💬 Conversation prompts

  • ¿Qué pusimos adentro para que suene?
  • ¿Suena más fuerte con mucho arroz o con poquito?
  • ¿Puedes tocar la maraca suave como un ratoncito?
  • ¿Cómo se llama tu maraca?
  • ¿Qué canción quieres tocar con tu maraca?

🔑 Vocabulary

  • maraca — shaker / maraca
  • arroz — rice
  • sonido — sound
  • fuerte — loud
  • suave — soft / gentle
  • tapa — lid
  • tocar — to play (an instrument)

Other ways to do it

⚡ 5-minute version

Fill and tape one shaker, then shake it fast and slow to one short song.

🚗 Car version

Bring the finished maraca in the car and shake along to a Spanish song on the radio.

😴 No-energy version

Lie back and gently shake the maraca like rain while humming a slow tune.

🎯 California standards covered

MU.K.1 Listening to Music
“I can listen to music and tell if it is high or low, loud or soft, fast or slow.”
MU.K.2 Singing & Playing Music
“I can sing songs and keep a beat with instruments.”
🔄 Replace with alternatives