Five Sensory Rain Stick Crafts for Kids

They say “April Showers bring May flowers.” Well I’ll tell you what. We should have some amazing flowers this year, because the rain just keeps coming. This weekend we decided to embrace the rainy weather and make 5 Sensory Rain Stick Crafts to share with you!

5 Sensory Rain Stick Crafts for Kids

Basic Rain Stick Design:

Making a Rain stick is super simple. All you need is:

• An Empty Paper Towel Roll
• Some Tin Foil
• Packaging Tape (Duck tape works too)
• A Cup of Rice

Begin by taping up one side of the paper roll tube. Then take a long piece of tin foil and crunch it up into a long, skinny snake. Wrap the snake around your finger causing it to make a spiral shape. Lengthen the spiral shape out to about the length of the tube. Place the tin foil spiral snake into the paper towel tube.

Using a funnel, or a spouted container, pour about 1 cup of rice into the paper towel tube. Then tape the open end shut.

There you have it! A simple rain stick template! You can really decorate your rain stick however you’d like, but here are 5 Sensory Rain Stick Designs that we think you might like!

Colored Yarn Rain Stick

This is by far our favorite Rain Stick Craft. It is colorful, easy to make, and is such great fine motor skill practice for your little ones. You can use any kind and color of yarn you want to, but we used multi-colored yarn that not only turned out looking beautiful, but was also super easy for kids to wind because the colors changed.

Start by taping one end of the yarn at the very top of the rain stick. Begin winding the yarn around the tube. Don’t worry if the yarn isn’t close together at this point. We found that if you wind it 4 or 5 times and then use your fingers to scrunch the yarn tightly together it was a lot easier.

Continue to wind and scrunch until you get to the end of the rain stick. Cut the yarn and tape the end.

Split Pea Rain Stick

This Rain Stick Craft is so great for kids who enjoy Sensory Learning and exploring with different textures. The Split Peas create such a fun surface to touch! You can buy a bag of split peas at your local grocery store.

Begin by dumping the split peas into a shallow dish. Using a sponge brush, paint a layer of Modge Podge on one side of the rain stick. Slowly roll the rain stick in the Split Peas, adding more Modge Podge if necessary. Turn the rain stick slightly and continue this process until the whole stick is covered in peas.

Be very generous with the amount of Modge Podge you use, and don’t forget it will dry clear, so putting on a top coat after the peas are in place will keep your rain stick from falling apart.

We also used a glossy acrylic spray paint to seal the rain stick after we were done. Just make sure you let it dry for a couple hours so those little hands don’t get too sticky.

Tin Foil Rain Stick

Have you ever colored with markers on tin foil? If you haven’t you are missing out! It is such a smooth surface and the colors are so pretty with the shine of the tin foil showing through.

To make this Sensory Rain Stick, begin by taping a large piece of tin foil, shiny side up, to your counter or table. This will help it not rip as it’s being colored. Then using, permanent markers, create any design you want!

When you are finished coloring, let your tin foil dry for 2-3 minutes. Then carefully crumple up the tin foil and open it back up. This will create a wonderful texture for your rain stick and make those colors really pop!

Finally, lay the rain stick on top of the tin foil taping one end. Roll the tin foil around the rain stick, trim off any extra, and tape the remaining side.

Washi Tape Rain Stick

Washi Tape is such a fun, easy way to decorate almost anything! And there are so many designs and colors to choose from! We chose 2 colors and put the tape on in a pattern alternating each one.

You could really do whatever you want! Creating vertical stripes might be fun, or using sparkle or textured tape. You could even get animal print washi tape for those little explorers of yours! The possibilities are endless!

Paper Strips Rain Stick

One of my favorite things to do is go to the craft store and pick out paper! There are so many fun kinds, and many stores have little books of paper for only $5 that are already matched and coordinated. I picked up one of these books a while ago knowing I’d use it for something, and these DIY Rain Stick Designs were the perfect project.

To begin, choose the paper you want you use. You can choose 2 colors or 10! It’s really completely up to you.

Cut the paper into strips at whatever width you prefer. We chose 3 different colors and made our strips all different widths so they wouldn’t have to be cut or placed perfectly.

Then take one end of the paper and tape it to the rain stick. Roll the paper around the rain stick and tape the other side. Repeat this process until the whole rain stick is covered in strips of paper.

There you have it – 5 Sensory Rain Stick Crafts for kids! Whether it is sunny or rainy where you are, these are a perfect craft for your little ones.