Do you have a bunch of paper cups lying around, leftover from picnics and parties? Make some paper cup music crafts from them. We have four easy ideas to get you started, but the sky is the limit and I’m sure you could come up with a few more ideas yourself too.

We originally made these paper cup musical instruments back in 2015, but have updated and reshared the craft for today’s audience.

You might also like this paper cup smart phone speaker

Paper cups are always useful to have on hand when you have bored kids at home. You can use them to make super tall towers, iphone speakers, pom pom poppers, telephones and today we’re showing you how to turn them into DIY musical instruments!

You could turn this into a fun STEM challenge too, by giving kids a bunch of materials to work with and seeing what they can come up with on their own.

paper cup music crafts for kids

You will need

• paper cups – we’ve used assorted sizes which is a good way to experiment with the different sounds they make, but one size will do too
• elastic bands
• duct tape
• string
• beads
• rice,  dried lentils, beans or similar to make shakers
• sponges, cut into squares
• straws
• Balloons to make drums, or you could also use paper and tape it on
• Metal skewer to poke holes

How to make paper cup drums:

These drums are pretty cool and take no more than a minute to make. Blow a balloon up and let the air out to give it a bit of stretch and then cut the tip off. Stretch the balloon over the top of the cup, grab a couple of paper straws and now you have a drum! They actually sound really good when you have three different sizes to play, although it took my girls a bit of practice to get into the knack of not hitting them too hard.

How to make paper cup rice shakers

Fill paper cups with rice (or lentils, dried beans or similar) and make shakers by sticking them together with duct tape. You’ll need to cut slits in the duct tape all around it horizontally so that it fits a bit better to the tapered edge of the cup. Again, the bigger cup sounds different to the little cups and filling it with different things will create new and interesting sounds too.

How to make a paper cup guitars

Put a rubber band over your cup and it becomes a strummer. To make it more interesting use different sizes of cups and rubber bands and see what difference it makes.

How to make a chicken noise maker

Poke a hole through the top of your cup using a kitchen skewer and thread through a piece of the bakers twine with a bead tied to the end. Wet a small square of sponge and use it to pull the string and you’ll find it sounds a lot like a chicken clucking.

What else could you make?

Paper cup music crafts

Print

Make 4 simple paper cup music crafts – then see what else you can come up with!

Prep Time 10 minutes

Active Time 20 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Difficulty very easy

Materials

• paper cups in assorted sizes
• elastic bands
• duct tape
• string
• beads
• rice, dried lentils, beans or similar to make shakers
• sponges, cut into squares
• straws
• Balloons to make drums, or you could also use paper and tape it on

Tools

• Metal skewer to poke holes

Instructions

Paper cup drums

Blow a balloon up and let the air out to give it a bit of stretch and then cut the tip off. Stretch the balloon over the top of the cup, grab a couple of paper straws and now you have a drum! Try making them with cups of different sizes and experiment with the sound they make

Paper cup shakers

Fill paper cups with rice (or lentils, dried beans or similar) and make shakers by sticking them together with duct tape. You’ll need to cut slits in the duct tape all around it horizontally so that it fits a bit better to the tapered edge of the cup. A bigger cup will sound different to a small cup and filling it with different things will create new and interesting sounds too.

Paper cup guitar

Put a rubber band over your cup and it becomes a 'guitar' (with a little stretch of the imagination). To make it more interesting use different sizes of cups and rubber bands and see what difference it makes.

Paper cup chicken noise maker

Poke a hole through the top of your cup using a kitchen skewer and thread through a piece of the bakers twine with a bead tied to the end. Wet a small square of sponge and use it to pull the string and you’ll find it sounds a lot like a chicken clucking.

More STEM crafts for kids

• Make a balloon-powered sponge boat
• Here is a recipe for how to make the coolest hand bubbles
• Print out this free set of creative challenge cards to get them thinking, drawing, building and designing
• Create a swing set or a see-saw for the toys using straws
• Make some gorgeous borax crystal ornaments