Make Your Own Musical Sandblocks

I’m on a roll with DIY posts lately, so I thought I’d share another easy project – plastic sand blocks for your preschool music students.

For other DIY music projects: Piano Practice Counter With Beads and Piano Practice Counter – Larger Wooden Version)

I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to shop for sand blocks, but a good set of sand blocks for little hands is hard to come by. I have these wooden Suzuki sand blocks from Amazon, but I find them to be a bit heavy and bulky for really young babies and toddlers. And, at over $11 per set, buying a whole class set of them is a bit pricy.

I created a lighter, less expensive, more baby-friendly version using air hockey paddles.

I just removed the felt from the bottom of the air hockey paddle and glued on a little of circle of sand paper. 

Here’s what you need:

1. Air hockey paddles
2. Extra Fine or Fine grit sandpaper
3. Glue Dots (Advanced Strength)
4. Mod Podge + paint brush or sponge

Once again, these are super easy to make:

1. Peel the felt off of the bottom of the air hockey paddle. (Mine came off very easily!)
2. Trace 2 circles that are approximately 2 5/8 inches on your sandpaper. (I used a narrow canning jar lid without the ring it was exactly the right size.)
3. Cut out the circles.
4. Use glue dots to adhere the sandpaper to the inner center of the of the air hockey paddle.
5. Paint a little bit of mod podge over the edges of the sand paper to seal them off.

Just let the mod podge dry and they’re ready to go! These come in at under $5/set and hold up great to toddler hands. They have made a wonderful addition to my preschool music class instrument collection.

If you love working with the littlest musicians, these resources are for you:

• Teach Preschool Music Facebook Page – this is where I share my favorite preschool music resources and ideas daily.
• Preschool Music Lesson Plan Crash Course – this course was designed to make your lesson planning a breeze. It includes a full year of preschool music lesson plans. I’ll also teach you my perfect music class formula that  I follow in every preschool music class.
• Teach Preschool Music – This is a full training course that helps you start your own preschool music class from scratch. My goal with this course is to save you time and money so that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel or make huge investments to get your preschool music class going.

Also see these preschool music articles:

• Preschool Music Theme: Numbers and Counting
• Preschool Lesson Plan Guide Using Eric Carle’s The Very Busy Spider
• 14 Benefits Of Preschool Music Classes
• 5 Goals Of Preschool Music Classes
• Songs To Get Preschoolers Moving
• Stories About Music For Young Children

 

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