Recycled Wind Chimes

These are some fun to make, homemade, upcycled wind chimes that the kids can make! My son and I rummaged through our recycling bins to find some tin cans in various shapes and sizes, including some lids. Believe me, there’s a lot you can do with stuff from your recycling bin! Upcycle whatever you can for the kids to play and create with!

I taped around the rims of the cans to prevent any cuts. Using his trusty green basting paintbrush, we painted the outside of the tin cans with washable tempera paint. Of course, we had to see the glitter, so we shook a lot some more on the tin cans when the paint was still wet. I am sooooo glad we did this project outside!

After the paint dried, we punched holes in the bottom of the tin cans. My son actually refused to use the real hammer and would only use his yellow toy one. He was determined to make the hole. (Luckily he let me take a few swings in between his so I could punch it through.)
I strung a long piece of yarn through the holes and tied two washers onto the end of the string, inside the tin cans. One washer is used to hold the yarn in place, the other is placed at the end of the string to make a lovely clanking sound when it hits the tin can. You could also use nuts or rocks instead of washers, whatever is hard enough to make a noise when it hits the can.
He tried threading the yarn through the washer holes, but still continues to struggle with this. Yarn isn’t the best medium to practice threading with, it comes unraveled and isn’t stiff. Once you’ve tied on your washers to the wind chimes, test out the noise it makes! We noticed right away that different size washers make different noises. Different size tin cans make different noises, too!
Hang up the tin cans so that they overlap each other. Let the wind do its thing and enjoy the wonderful clanking of your homemade wind chimes! (Or you can let your child do their thing too and listen to it all the time!)