Mexican Noise Maker

What You Need:

• 2 paper plates
• Yellow acrylic paint
• Paint brush
• 2 sheets of yellow construction paper
• Safety scissors
• Green, white and red tissue paper
• Markers and/or glitter glue
• Glue
• Dried beans or rice

What You Do:

1. Ask your child to apply a coat of yellow paint to the bottom sides of each paper plate.
2. While the paint dries, help your child measure and cut the sheets of yellow construction paper so that they are square and the same width as the plates. 
3. Overlap one piece of construction paper over the other, creating an 8-point star. Help your child glue them together.
4. Help your child cut the tissue paper into strips, about one inch wide and four inches long.
5. Ask your child to glue the strips of tissue paper around the edges of the 8-point star, alternating green, white and red strips in a clockwise direction until the entire star is trimmed.
6. When you sandwich them between the paper plates, triangular corners of the paper should protrude beyond the plates. These will be the rays of the sun.
7. When the plates are dry, encourage your child to decorate them with cheery pictures.
8. Apply glue to the inner rim of one paper plate and attach one side of the star to it.
9. Fill the second paper plate with a handful of dried beans or rice. 
10. Apply glue around the inner rim of the second paper plate and stick the unattached side of star to it.
11. Allow the noisemaker to dry completely before your child plays with it.

For a little extra pizzazz, tie string to several jingle bells and glue or staple them around the rim of the noisemaker. If the plate is a little too large for your younger child to grasp, then try folding the plates in half and stapling them together so that you have a half-moon shape.