DIY Patriotic Peace Drum: Tutorial Tuesday

FIREWORKS!!! The fireworks are coming!!! Get ready now!

Fireworks Fun and BOOM

Have I mentioned lately that I LUV LUV LUV fireworks? This year I get to have an extra-special opportunity to participate in an amazing event! I'll be taking my newest picture book, "Red, White and Blue" to participate as an author at "Read, White and Boom" at the notorious "Red, White and BOOM!" event in Columbus, Ohio. Got that? Yes, I know its a mouthful!! 

It's a very special fund-raiser for a very special project sponsored by Children's Hospital in support of "Reach Out and Read." A week from today! 

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!!

I'll never forget the first time I took the girls to a BIG fireworks extravaganza. I was so hyped. We'd gotten there early, had our blanket in place and f-i-n-a-l-l-y once darkness descended the fun could begin. I was so ready.

Long story short. They hated  didn't like it. With the explosive booms their cowering turned to sobs. Were they two and three? Three and four? The specifics have blurred with the years, but their terror remains with me these decades later. "Not fun, mommy!"

As I begin to look forward to this year's fireworks that memory came streaming back. Thinking about loud noises and somehow I landed at the DIY project I call "Peace Drums" after having worked with master drummer Baba Jubal Harris. Maybe if we'd have had peace drums on that blanket those many years ago, the girls could have 'pounded' along with the percussive display. Would that have helped empower them? Need my time-machine Delorean to know for sure, but I'm thinkin' it would have helped. 

1. Take four lengths of wood and have fun painting.
2. Once dry get them all nailed together. 
3. Then you'll need clear, 'wrapping' tape to make your drum head. Wrap completely around your drum frame and cut. 
4. Overlap your tape wrappings all the way going along top to bottom in segments. 
5. Then go the other direction -- left to right, wrapping each time around, cutting and overlapping as you go across. 

Voila!!! You've got your very own peace drum. It would be fun to take it to a parade and drum along with the marching bands as they pass by. 

You could make your life a little 'simpler' if you were able to locate some heavy-duty picture frames/shadow box style that were already assembled -- you could then just paint the frame and use the same theory of wrapping tape to make the drum head. Easy-peasy lemon squeezie!!

Make several for your classroom!! Pound out syllables in student's names. Drum along with dittie-singing, make up percussion patterns and see if the children can replicate. Use it in a therapeutic setting to pound out your frustrations. Possibilities galore!

Drumming offers so many opportunities. Create the wood frames in varying lengths and dimensions and you've got a whole science experiment of sound to explore. 

Thanks for stopping by Tutorial Tuesday. Thanks as always when you can 'pin' the image to your collection of Pinterest reminders. 

-- Debbie -- 

**as always when you use the promo code "great" (grass roots efforts are terrific) at my website, you will receive a 10% discount on your entire order