Rainsticks are long tubes, usually made of wood or reeds, filled with anything from pebbles to seeds. They were originally used by ancient people to create music akin to the pitter-patter of rain. Because rainsticks are associated with rain, the instrument has a variety of tie-ins with lesson plans in several subjects. Subject matter such as primitive societies and belief systems, percussion instruments and the water cycle can all benefit from the incorporation of rainsticks. Whatever subject you incorporate with rainsticks, students will absorb knowledge by making a rainstick, using the rainstick, and reading or writing about the instrument.
Instructions
1. Introduce the subject matter and tie in the rainstick with the information. For example, when studying primitive cultures discuss how people sometimes believed nature reacted as a direct response to their actions and that playing a rainstick was believed to create rain.
2. Allow students to create rainsticks by covering a cardboard tube end with a square of wax paper. Secure it with a rubber band. Fill the tube with dried beans, pebbles or beads. Close the remaining opening with wax paper and a rubber band. Decorate the rainsticks. This is a tactile learning technique allowing students to participate and experience the feel, sound and use of a rainstick.
3. Look at diagrams about the subject being connected to rainsticks. For example, when discussing the water cycle, study a wall chart and explain how rain occurs, whether or not a rainstick is shaken. Have students shake the rainsticks to see if rain occurs. Examining diagrams or charts, and shaking the rainsticks and seeing no rain produced are good activities for visual learners who need to see what is being learned.
4. Divide students into groups. Allow them to choose a song about rain or water and shake their rainsticks, using the rainstick as a musical instrument, as they sing together. Some songs are: "The Itsy Bitsy Spider", "It Ain't Gonna Rain No More" and "Rain, Rain, Go Away". Cooperative learners benefit from experiences involving group participation. Middle and high school students can use popular songs appropriate to age.
5. Play a CD or tape of rain sounds while students rest their heads on their desks. Turn off the lights and encourage students to imagine the rain while thinking about how important rain is to the land and people. After the sounds are finished, allow the students to shake their rainsticks. Compare the actual rain sounds to the sounds of the rainsticks. Have students write (or draw) about what they imagined while listening to the rain sounds compared to what they thought while shaking the rainsticks. This encourages students to exercise auditory learning skills as well as creative thinking.
Tags: rain sounds, benefit from, example when, Have students, rain occurs
