Tuesday, March 13, 2012

the wooden xylophone





Here's a little more about the wooden xylophone I showed the other day.  I saw it on pinterest just in time for X x xylophone day at preschool.  The idea was pinned from For the Children.   But the directions came from Instructables.  It  really was just as easy and quick as they said. 


The directions called for 2x4's which are super cheap and you can probably find scrap 2x4 pieces if you know someone who does any tool work.   I used 1x3 pieces because I knew I'd be carting it back and forth to school.  It did take the cost from under $8 to just under $20. I didn't think that through all the way.


I had the guy at the store cut it for me because it was easier than cleaning out a path in the garage to the tool area. We need to get all the patio furniture out of the garage! 
  
Here's the basics for the construction.  The directions said to start at a board something like 12 inches and go up to 30 inches in 2 inch increments.  I started at 8 inches and went up to 30, in 2 inch increments.  I used some camping rope and two carabiners to hang the xylophone and let it still be portable.  The rope was $2.99 and the carabiners were $1.00 each.  

The rope gets stapled on with a staple gun.  There was a little math formula I read in the comment section on the original directions.  It said to attach the rope to the board 2/9 of the total distance in for the best sound.  That meant that to find the distance in from the edge, each board length (example 10 inches) was multiplied by 2 (example:  10x2=20) then, that number gets divided by 9.   (example:  20/9= 2.2222).  So the board that was 10 inches got attached 2.2 inches from the ends.  This little formula then gets applied to each length.


We hammered the staples down as well just to really secure it.  One end of my rope (the short end of the xylophone) is the middle of the rope.  The rope is one piece in a big loop. The other has the two free ends of the rope.  Those I left even longer and tied a series of knots (tying the ropes together) to allow for different lengths so I can hopefully hang it wherever needed.


We've tried plain wooden dowel rods, plastic drum mallets, and wooden spoons.  We like the wooden spoons best. 


It goes to school this week and I'm excited to see the kiddos play with it. 

1 comment:

Aunt Donna said...

This a great! Your students are so lucky to have a teacher introduce them to such things as a wooden xylophone. In fact, all of the activites that you plan are so creative and well developed. I'm sure that the children will be well prepared for kindergarten.