I was excited about making tap shoes all week! We had to make a trip to Lowe's to buy a few 5/8 washers and I already had elastic at home, so making the "tappers" was really cheap. We got 8 washers for $1.50.
These are the materials we used.....
2 washers for each shoe, shoes, and elastic about 3-5 inches long
The washers... the top row are the smaller washers (5/8 I think)
and were a little thicker
and were a little thicker
the bottom row were a little bigger (more surface area)
but were thinner
but were thinner
sorry I don't know the exact measurements but make sure you
don't buy the Galvanized ones
**We also did a few counting problems and simple addition and subtraction
with these great new toys**
The elastic was about 3-5 inches long... I halved it and put it through the loop
Then made a half hitch on each side making sure the elastic was lying as flat as possible
Make sure you tie the washer onto the shoe very tight!
The elastic has some give, so be sure it is on tight.
I put the smaller washer on the heal and the larger washer on the ball of the shoe.
He went outside and began to "T-t-t", tap his toes.
(He is holding a yarn stick he found.)
Notes:
Once River started to tap it was apparent that my idea of having 2 washers on the ball and heal of the shoe wasn't going to work, they began to come off. The smaller/thicker washer worked much better than the larger/thinner one. You only need to put one washer on per shoe. The sound of the washer hitting the pavement wasn't as loud as a real tap shoe would be but it was sufficient. River loved stomping around but had no desire for me to show him some basic tap dance steps. So was it worth a dollar, you bet!
