“shake it up, shake it up”

My kids like to rock out here, we have some toy drums, some acoustic guitars, and a house band at the ready. We are making shakers today here at Our home to add to our musical collection. We never buy Pringles. Ever. For some reason it is just not a chip we eat a lot of. But when we had a party recently we had these sitting around. Well two of them. I had made the plan to turn them into shakers for my kids. But we had two cans and three kids. You do the math. So Dale begrudgingly purchased another Pringles, and ate them. Not in one day or anything, but it did not take him too long. Three clean and empty Pringles cans are ready to become the latest addition to this Homes band.

So people, here goes the very basic and simple instructions. I used standard paper, I think this was leftover from years ago. Each child chose their own color. I could have gotten fancy, gotten a poster board to fit the whole size of the can. But this is a super quick and no fuss shaker. I taped one side, along the whole side to the can.

Then roll it around and tape the other side. The can is now a pretty and covered up shaker. Just have to add the shaker parts to it.

We have had these beans for a long time. I used them for the kids when they were tiny babies to encourage fine motor skills, texture, and fun times. Also how fast I can grab the bean from going into the little ones mouth. Great exercise for kids, you just have to stay on top of them. My kids are not so tiny anymore and their motor skills are perfect, so no worries there. And not much use for the beans. So this is the shaker part of the fun.

I let the kids choose how much they wanted then filled up. I did all three at least half way full. From there they told me when to stop. Some only wanted a little more, and some wanted them almost to the top with beans. Put some tape around the tops to make these a little less reopen-able and we now have a shaker.

But of course, we had to make it fancy. This is my house, and my kids, we don’t do much subtle. We broke out the stickers and went crazy.

Well, I thought they should go crazy, my kids are freakishly controlled in their sticker usage. They have to put them just so. All lined up, one at a time. When I was little and got my hands on stickers I went insane. I became a sticker monster. Maybe my kids are immune to stickers being fun. We have them out all the time, art supplies at their leisure, so the exciting feeling of using stickers is lost on them. Or they are all OCD and are missing the whole point of being creative, thinking outside of the lines. Anyways, I took this to a whole other place, lets bring it back. Decorate the shakers up, however your little ones want to.

We added their names on each shaker, really for my benefit alone. There will be no whining and screaming from these kids about one brother having the other’s shaker. Or Nora took mine and broke it. Nope, find your shaker with your name on it and shake away. If name does not match your identity, drop that shaker and step away.

Nora was not wanting to do too much posing, but she did line up her name all by herself

Gavin, he was so excited that he could pick his own stickers. This was a perfect activity for my three year old. He could do most of it all by himself, which is big and very important in his world at the moment.

Caleb just wanted to love his shaker, he was proud of the stickers all being a certain way.

I told my models to hold them up so I could see them. This is what they did. Exactly what I asked, hold them up. The one time they listen to my directions….

Shake it up, shake it up

And that is how you make a shaker from some Pringles can’s. Now, go get some Pringles, start eating, and then get to shaking. You really have to now, so you can make the shaker and all!

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