Make Bongos

Transform recycled containers into a banging set of bongos! Join musician Dave Jadico as he shows you step by step how to get your groove on with this bongo craft!

2 Breadcrumb containers
Construction paper
Clear tape
2 Large wooden spools
String
Sticky foam
Exacto knife
Permanent marker

REMEMBER THAT IT'S IMPORTANT TO ALWAYS WORK UNDER ADULT SUPERVISION. SOMETIMES WE USE THINGS THAT CAN BE HARMFUL, LIKE SCISSORS, SO DON'T EVER ATTEMPT TO MAKE THESE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS ALONE.

1. Take two breadcrumb containers, empty them out, and remove the labels. If you don’t have breadcrumb containers, you can use two other similarly shaped cylindrical containers.
2. Take the lids of the containers and place them on the bottoms. This will create a nice, solid surface for tapping on your bongos with your hands.
3. Use a permanent marker to make two marks on each container/bongo: One towards the bottom and one about halfway down from the top. These are where you’ll be making holes to run a string through that attaches them together.
4. With an adult helper, use an Exacto knife to cut square holes where each mark is on each bongo.
5. Cut off about three feet of string and thread it through the holes you’ve made in one of the bongos. Then, thread it through one of your wooden spools to attach it to the outside of the bongo. To keep the string from fraying, wrap some tape around the end of it. The spools will give the bongos some distance when they’re attached together.
6. Run the string through the holes of the second bongo (be sure the tops are lined up) and a second spool just as you did the first one.
7. Once they’re both threaded, take the end of the string and run it back through the bottom hole of the first bongo and out the bottom. Tightly pull on both ends of the string and tie a knot to hold the bongos together with the spools in between them. Cut off any excess.
8. Take some construction paper and hold it up against one of your bongos. Mark off the width.
9. Fold the paper where that mark is and cut off the excess along the fold.
10. Trace the shape of the first piece of bongo-width construction paper on to another piece and cut that out.
11. Wrap a piece of your cut construction paper around each bongo, marking and cutting off any more excess. Tuck them in where the spools are and secure it with tape.
12. Decorate the construction paper around the bongos however you want using sticky foam.
13. Now you’re ready to play! Hold them under your arm, tapping the top bongo with your left hand and the bottom one with your right.