Maracas: creative recycling with Mash&Co

Take some time to be with your children, making toys with simple materials and nurture them to the art of creative recycling. Today we are going to create together the maracas with our friends Mash and Periwinkle characters.

Required items for the maracas

• 4 plastic cups

• Mash  and Periwinkle silhouettes

• A4 cardboard papers

• Scotch tape

• PVA glue or hot glue

• 2 straws

• 2 elastics

• A teaspoon of rice

• colored pencils or markers

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Procedure to create Mash&Co maracas

Make two wholes in the bottom of one of two glasses with the scissors being careful not to break up all the plastic around. Place the straw into the hole and fix it with the hot glue and rubber bands. Fill in the glass with a teaspoon of rice, then attach above the other glass securing it with the tape.

Cut out strips of paper, wrap them up to create thickness, and attach it to the center of your maracas. Repeat with the other glasses. After you’ve downloaded and printed off Mash and Periwinkle silhouettes (downloaded here), color them, cut them out and glue them on cardboard. Your maracas are done! Have fun.

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READ ALSO: How To Teach Kids Ecological Awareness

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Letizia Grasso, Educationalist
“All grown-ups were children, but few of them remember it” This phrase is engraved on my heart. The child who marvels at small things is always with me. I firmly believe that the school should focus on self-construction of knowledge through direct contact with the outside world and, therefore, through the experiences of life. A school open to life and from life itself learns. A school that teaches to observe every little thing, to wonder and to ask questions. A school that forms adults who know how to reflect and put into a relationship the mind and heart.”

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