Enjoy your own rain shower without getting wet when you make this kid's craft.

I am so thrilled that spring is here, and we celebrated its arrival by making a rainstick.  Everything we needed for this craft was already around the house, and some of it was even recycled.  How’s that for getting into the spirit of April?  Not only have we covered the whole “April showers” thing, but we kind of hit on Earth Day, as well.

Once your rainstick craft is done, you can turn it from end to end and hear it “rain” as the rice inside slides from one end to the other.  I find that turning it slowly makes for a more realistic rain effect.

Related Pages: Recycled box aliens, 12 More Recycled Crafts for Kids

To make a rainstick, you will need:

• An empty paper towel roll
• Left over tissue paper
• Scissors
• White glue
• Paint brush
• Rubber bands
• Wax paper
• Aluminum foil
• Rice/Popcorn kernels (if I made another one, I would just stick with the rice because I think it sounds more like rain)

The materials for an April showers rainstick craft.

Start with a sheet of aluminum foil about 25" long.

Roll the aluminum foil into a long tube to make the interior of the rainstick craft. I wrapped ours around a dowel.

Curl the foil into a spring. Again, I used the dowel.

You'll want the final coil to be just about the length of your paper towel roll. It then gets placed inside the rainstick.

Wrap wax paper around one end of your rainstick craft, and affix it with a rubber band. I then cut off the excess.

Have your kiddo help you pour in rice, popcorn kernels, or whatever you've decided to use to make your sound effects.

Seal up the other end of your rainstick craft with wax paper and a rubber band.

Cut your tissue paper into small pieces (about an inch or so). We recycled tissue from presents we've received.

Mix white glue with a little water and use your paint brush to decoupage the tissue paper on to your rainstick.

I decoupaged the tissue paper right over the wax paper to make it less likely to come loose and fall off.

What I Learned the Hard Way: I originally had cut out wax paper circles to put over the ends, but I found them really hard to work with, so I ended up just using a bigger chunk of wax paper and cutting it after I put the rubber band on.  Also, the popcorn doesn’t sound nearly as good as the rice.

Thankfully I was browsing through some old files today and came across my cute Christmas pinwheel craft from last year, and it was a super-easy update to do more with a spring / summer theme – so here they are!

Color Mosaic Pinwheel	Color Your Own Pinwheel	Colorful Sunflower Pinwheel
Retro Orange Wallpaper Pinwheel	Retro Green Design Pinwheel	Polka Dot Pinwheel
Color Blocks Pinwheel	Camouflage Pinwheel	Pastel Sunburst Pinwheel
Pink Watercolor Pinwheel	Ocean Print Pinwheel	Candy Dots Pinwheel

Check out more paper crafts like these easy origami kites, tissue paper flowers, or even these Pokemon paper crafts and coloring pages!

You may also be interested in this plaster handprint kit from Plaid Crafts. I used it with one of my children and to this day kick myself in the pants for not doing it with the other two when they were little!

Easter Bunny Painted Handprint Easter Bunny	Easter Lily Handprint Easter Lily Craft	Easter Basket Handprint Easter Basket Craft	Flower Bouquet Painted Easter Flower Bouquet
Easter Chick Footprint Easter Chick	Sun Handprint Paper Plate Sun	Spring Flowers Spring Flower Handprint Craft	Easter Bunnies Painted Handprint Bunnies
Easter Lamb Easter Lamb Craft	Butterfly Handprint Butterfly Craft	Spring Rainbow Handprint Spring Rainbow Craft	Easter Chicks Painted Easter Chicks Craft

Check out all of our handprint crafts and the rest of our Easter crafts and spring activities, too!