Saturday, June 25, 2011

Folk Toy Fridays - Folk Instruments - Paper Cup Cuicas

Did you know, that the sounds of a soda pop covered, plastic straw being raised, and lowered in a paper cup...





...are very reminiscent of a cuica (kweeka), a Brazilian folk instrument, used for percussion in samba music?

Check out the video above, and then this YouTube video of a cuica, if you don't believe me.

The children managed to get a pretty good range of sounds from their cups, before I had to curtail the music lesson, in response to angry glances coming from the quiet people at the table next to ours (clearly, they were not homeschoolers, or bloggers).

Actual cuicas, or laughing gourds, are open drums with a stick attached to the middle of the drum membrane, that can be rubbed with a wet cloth, to produce a high pitched range of sounds, sort of like the cackling cups we played with last summer. But, the straws in the cup lids, sounded a lot more like the real thing, to me, and were pretty simple to make.

  • Fill fast food cups with soda pop.

  • Add lids, straws, and children with a few minutes to kill.


And, just like that, you have a band, or at least a pretty good percussion section.


It's great to be a homeschooler.

6 comments:

Phyllis said...

I would love to go out to lunch with your family!

Christy Killoran said...

I know my kids would have a lot of fun with this one. I assume it works with other beverages - C and R both hate soda (they don't like the carbonation); if not, I'm sure T would be happy to drink the soda for them!

I'm really enjoying all of the folk toy posts!

An Almost Unschooling Mom said...

Christy - Yes, the straw just needs to be wet :)

Ticia said...

I didn't know DQ was that far North......

So now when the kids play with their straws and make annoying noises, I can say they're learning cultural things?

An Almost Unschooling Mom said...

Ticia - You can find Dairy Queens all the way up into Canada!

Natalie PlanetSmarty said...

I love the picture with this post - so cute to see all your kids together. I'll have to remember this next time we are in the restaurant.