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Toddler Kazoo: Discovery at Home

Blog, Discovery at Home

Dun-da-da-dunnn!

Create kazoo sound waves with Ms. Nancy at the Kansas Children’s Discovery Center! Using recycled materials and other items found around the house, create a musical sensory toy as a family! This activity is generously sponsored by our friends at Sunflower Health Plan.

What you need:

  • Cardboard tubes (long or short)
  • Wax paper
  • Rubber bands

Directions:

  1. Cover one end of the tube with wax paper.
  2. Secure the wax paper with a rubber band wrapped tightly.
  3. Show your toddler how to cup the tube with their fingers around the open end so there is space between the tube and their mouth. This will preserve the life of their toy and help with vibration!
  4. Put the tube against their cupped fingers and humm, say do-do-doo or da-ta-daa! Try laughing loudly: HA HA HAA! Try different combinations to make the perfect kazoo sounds! This may take time to get the hang of it, but the process is a great calm breathing technique for exhaling the air out and away before deeply inhaling for another go!
  5. If they are still having a problem with the vibration, check to see that the rubber band is spaced away from the edge of the tube and there is room between the wax paper and the edge of the tube to vibrate.

Ways to expand the activity:

  • Create kazoos of different lengths!
  • Poke holes along one side of the tube with a sharp object and adjust the sound when covered with a finger. What do you notice?
  • When sounds have reached the point of chaos, have your child march to the backyard and have a parade for the neighbors!
  • Make several kazoos and have a family parade through the living room and into the bedroom to announce bed, bath and book time

What do they learn?

  • Inspire creativity and problem solving. Have your child decorate their new instrument and then ask them to make one for a friend. Will it look the same? Different?
  • Explore sound and vibration. To make sound, air needs 3 sources: vibration (us), a source to travel through (tube), and a receiver (ear). The wax paper vibrates from the sound of their voice amplifying it! Can you hear it now?