One of my all-time favorite make-n-takes from a California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom conference has to be the chicken clucker, and I found mine stored away in a bin in the garage recently. I don’t even remember the date of that long-ago conference or the location, but I saved my chicken. I’ve shared this project with elementary school kids and taught it to San Jacinto High School FFA students who, in turn, helped fourth-graders make their chickens at our Riverside County Ag Day more than a decade ago. It’s a crowd-pleaser.
Paso Robles fifth-grade teacher Judy Honerkamp introduced this project at the Ag in the Classroom conference. I tried to reach her for this article, but she is no longer listed among the Bauer Speck School staff. I did find a photo of Judy from 2015 receiving recognition for her Ag Day at the elementary school. That year was the Ag Day’s 20th anniversary, and the Paso Robles Daily News covered the event.
Judy called the project the “cluck-cluck chicken,” and, if done right, the chicken produces a clucking sound.
Materials needed per student:
- 1 copy of the chicken outline, on red or yellow colored paper, or white if students will color their chickens
- A 7-ounce plastic cup that matches the chicken color;
- A 15-inch strand of dental floss;
- Two googly eyes.
Directions:
- Color the chicken if it has not been copied on colored paper.
- Cut out both sides of the chicken.
- Staple together the outer edges of the chicken.
- Poke a small hole in the bottom of the cup.
- Thread the dental floss through the hole.
- Tie a knot on the end of the floss on the outside of the cup.
- Turn the cup upside down and slip the chicken over the cup.
- Staple the chicken to the cup.
- Glue the googly eyes onto the chicken (optional).
- Run your finger down the floss in a jerking motion.
- Listen to the chicken cluck.
