Make this drum and then beat it while you are celebrating the Fourth of July.

Materials:

• coffee can with lid
• red, white and blue acrylic paint
• paint brushes.
• Two unsharpened pencils or pieces of dowel
• Optional:  white spray paint

Instructions:

• Optional:  Have an adult spray paint the entire can white beforehand to save time.  It can be tricky to paint the plastic lid and metal can.  Spray painting ahead of time will make the painting easier and faster for the children.
• Have child test the coffee can… do they like to bang the pencils on the lid or on the aluminum bottom? Whichever they prefer will be the top of your drum!
• Unless you prepainted with spray paint, paint the entire can, including the top your base color (we used white) and let dry.  The bottom doesn’t need to be painted.
• Paint a wide stripe around the top and bottom edges of the cylinder (we used red) and let dry.
• Paint zigzagging lines all the way around the drum and paint a narrow stripe around the top of your drum (the part you bang).  We used blue.
• Optional:  paint your pencils or dowel (we used blue)