Celebrate Carnaval with Carnaval Shaker Craft

Lent is an austere season in Latin America, 40 days full of self denial and sacrifices in preparation for Easter. But before we deprive ourselves of carnal pleasures we make sure to kick it off with a huge party known round the world as Carnaval ( see where the name comes from?) While the Lenten season is kicked off with festivals around the world like the Venetian Carnevale or the Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans the best known and most iconic celebration, worldwide, is the Carnaval in Rio De Janeiro Brazil.

The most well known aspect of Brazilian Carnaval is the music, mostly different styles of Samba. Since the sounds of Carnaval is so important our Carnaval craft is a Shaker . A word of warning, these are loud! My kids could have resurrected the dead with our shakers full of pasta ( the rice was far less noisy) so choose your Carnaval Shaker filing wisely. And a side note , Carnaval is spelled many different ways but it is indeed the same celebration so grab your Carnaval, Carnevale, Carnival or Mardi Gras Shakers and celebrate the beginning of Lent !

To make our Carnaval Shakers you’ll need

A tube with a top ( we used a Pringles can and it worked good ( a little TOO good if you value peace and quiet)
Craft or Scrapbook Paper ( 8×8 works perfectly)
Tape
Colorful Stickers
Glue
Colorful Pipe cleaners
1/4 cup Dried Rice, Beans, pasta or anything hard to fill your tube with

To make your Carnaval Shaker

Wrap your scrapbook paper around the pringles can. Tape the paper to the can and then when it is wrapped around tape it to itself. Trim off excess paper from the bottom. Next stick the colorful stickers all around your carnaval shaker to dress it up. Add some of your musical filling to the can. The larger and harder the objects the more noise, so go with rice for less impact. Put a bit of blue around the inside of the lid and seal it up so none of the musical contents escape. Lastly use your pipe cleaners as trip around the top and bottom of your instrument. Find some Samba music on the internet and have your own little Sambódromo at home!