I came home from the grocery store with a few small paper bags today, the kind that’s just right for produce. Veronika immediately wanted to play with them, so we turned them into easy shakers!

First up was decorating with markers. Whenever she colors now, she names the color of each marker with such pride. “Black! Green! Yellow cap!”

After this narrated decorating was through, I filled the bags with a little bit of unpopped corn kernels. (Dried beans or rice would work well, too). Secure with a rubber band. I added a ribbon on the first bag for a decorative touch, but she was more distracted by the ribbon than anything else, so we stuck to rubber bands on subsequent bags.

We also learned by trial and error not to fill the bags too heavy with the popcorn. Lighter was much easier for her to shake.

She got the hang of holding on to the top part (above the rubber band) for the best sound.

And then there was just lots of exuberant shaking.

I thought we might put on music, but I didn’t even get a chance! She just loved the cha cha cha noise these made. “Loud!” she said happily, and resumed shaking, often with one in each hand.