Collect orange juice can tops for awhile. You can decorate these by making paper circles the size of the tops and drawing pictures on them. Put them on the top of the top and punch holes through the paper and the top with a nail. You will need to use a hammer so younger children need help/supervision. Make sure the surface the tops are on are ones you don't care about (we used small blocks of wood). If you choose not to decorate them that's ok too, they still make noise. You will need one hole in each top to string the plastic gimp through. Tie the gimp on your branch leaving long pieces to tie the can tops and jingle bells on to. Tie another piece of gimp to each end of the branch to form a string to hang it with. I hung mine on my deck near where I hang out clothes. It reminds me of the nice day we had each time the wind blows :)

Another neat project to do with cans is to freeze water in them and then punch holes in the sides of the can using a nail with a hammer. After you dry the cans they make nice candle holders and the designs light up. I like to use them outside on our deck when we have a cookout and it gets dark. The kids like to admire their handiwork.

Two more things you can do with orange juice can lids are make a color pie chart thingy on round paper the size of the lid, glue the paper on the lid, punch a hole in the middle of the lid and spin like a top. Try making some designs to create optical illusions and to see how colors blend and change. You can do the same thing by decorating both sides of the lid, punching a hole all the way through the lid and then putting a double string through the hole. Tie a string long enough to fit both your hands through it (remember the way we did it for string tricks like a cat's cradle). Put the strings in your hand and twirl the lid in the middle so that the string is twisted on both sides. Give the string a yank so that it untwists and you'll have some neat designs/colors to look at.

Have fun!!!

Joan