A noise-maker that sounds much like a clucking chicken can be made using the following steps.

 

1. Using a yellow or red plastic cup, ask an adult to punch a hole in the center bottom of the cup. This can be done with a large needle or sharp pointed object, such as a nail.

2. Thread an 18-24inch piece of cotton string through the hole and tie it to a paper clip on the outside of the cup.(Top of the chicken’s head)

3.  With the cup’s bottom end up, create your chicken. We used googly eyes, red craft foam and yellow and orange paper but you could use permanent markers to draw eyes and a bird’s beak on the cup or colored felt.  I used hot glue to attach the parts but craft glue would work too, just need more time to dry.

4. Tie the free end of the string around the center of a small piece of sponge.

5. Wet the sponge with water, and then squeeze as much water as possible out of the sponge. You want it moist but not dripping wet.

6. Hold the cup in one hand and wrap the wet sponge around the string as close to the cup as possible. Pinching the sponge against the string, pull the sponge down the string in a jerky motion. A loud sound much like a clucking chicken will be heard. Once the string is wet just your fingers on the string will work too.

 

What’s Happening?

Sound is a type of energy that moves through material causing the material to vibrate. Pulling on the string causes it to vibrate, which causes the cup and the air inside it to vibrate. These vibrations are called sound waves, which move through air to your ears. Nerves inside your ears send a message to your brain which interprets it as a specific sound.

 

Background

Chickens are a source of both meat and eggs. Most chickens weigh between seven and 10 pounds, although they can weigh as much as 13 pounds or as little as 1.5 pounds.

Hens start laying at 22 weeks of age. Laying hens produce about 240 eggs each year. During the hen’s most productive period, she may lay an egg about six out of every seven days. Eggs hatch in 21 days. The hen requires a minimum of 25 hours to produce an egg. Thirty minutes later, she starts all over again.

 The chicken life cycle has three states—egg, chick and adult (hen or rooster). A young chick is very small when it hatches. After eight weeks it has grown to weigh about 3 1/2 pounds. A chicken is different from other birds because it has a comb and two wattles. The comb is the red appendage on top of the head, and wattles are the two appendages under the beak.

 

New Vocabulary

beak—a rigid mouth structure that sticks out

comb—a fleshy crest on the head of the domestic chicken

wattle—a fleshy flap of skin hanging usually from the neck