Make Your Own: "Ribbon Wands"

There are terrific products out there for teaching music...but who can afford them all?  Sometimes I devise ways to make my own for much less money.


Some time ago I bought rainbow ribbon wands at musicinmotion.com.  My students and I love using them for performances, showing phrases in music, creative movement, and many other activities.  But $26.00 (plus shipping) for only 6 makes the cost too prohibitive to have enough wands to involve an entire class of students in an activity.


Luckily, a student who was into fishing told me that the swiveling hook holding each ribbon to the wand looked just like a snap swivel hook he used for fishing.  Once I found these at a local store (very inexpensive!), the rest of the items I needed to assemble these were very easy to find!

Luckily, I have a woodworker father who not only had the dowel rods available, but he also cut them to the proper lengths (9 inches) needed for each wand.  He attached a hook to the end of each dowel securely with glue, and I then attached the snap swivel hook and tied a 12 foot ribbon (tie in the center so that the total length of the hanging ribbon is 6 foot) onto each snap swivel hook.  For younger students (preschool through third grade), use a smaller length of ribbon, so they don't get tangled up!