Tag Archives: time

Total Rock Star

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People might think rocks are totally boring and just sit there. But this book proves them all wrong! Turns out when it comes to eras, rocks win the time travel marathon, hands down! Why be sedentary when you can be…wait for it…sedimentary?

We read Old Rock (is not boring) by Deb Pilutti (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2020). Tall Pine, Spotted Beetle, and Hummingbird are convinced that Old Rock is boring. He doesn’t go anywhere, see anything, or do anything. But Old Rock explains how many millennia ago, he flew from a volcano, gazed at dinosaurs, rode a glacier, tumbled down a ridge, and watched a forest grow around him. It’s all about perspective!

You’ll need:

  • 1 small tissue box
  • 2 foam beads
  • A short piece of bamboo skewer (ours was 5″)
  • A 7″ paper plate
  • One time travel wheel template, printed on 8.5″ x 11″ paper
  • Tin foil
  • 1 rock
  • Box cutter, scissors, glue and tape for construction
  • Markers for decorating

We loved the idea of time passing for Old Rock, so we created this simply time machine project! Begin by placing a small tissue box on its side. Use a box cutter to cut a 1″ wide space in the sides and top of the box (leave the bottom intact):

Next, glue a foam bead to the center top of the box. No foam bead handy? Use a small snippet of drinking straw instead. Repeat with a second bead on the opposite side of the box. The bamboo skewer should thread easily through them, creating an axle for your paper plate:

Now for your spinning time travel wheel! Cut the template from the paper and color. A special shout out summer intern, Malaysia for her volcano, dinosaur, and glacier artwork! You’ll notice the final panel on the template is blank. That’s where kids can draw their own homes.

Use the bamboo skewer to poke a hole through the template and the paper plate. Thread the skewered plate through the foam beads to create your rotating time travel wheel like so:

Decorate the outside of the box with tin foil (we offered embossed foil paper and sparkle stems as well). If you’d like the “Totally Rockin’ Time Machine” sign, here is the template. Make sure not to cover the open mouth of the tissue box open – that’s your time travel machine’s viewfinder. Finally…the rock!

We didn’t have a supply of rocks handy, so we crafted these out of model magic. Just add grey craft paint and wiggle eyes and you have one very charismatic rock. Place the rock inside the time machine, spin the wheel, and watch the millennia fly by!

This book went over SO well at story time! It’s lovely, well-paced, and exciting. It’s no surprise it’s a multiple award-winner. The kids were absolutely riveted. But we were further delighted when, completely randomly, a youngster arrived with a couple rocks of his own! You can see them in the intro image, but we wanted to give his special rocks a portrait of their very own:

 

Timeless Classic

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timeless

In a dark castle, a clock hangs, hands frozen. Our stylish cardboard clocks, however, work perfectly! This clock was one of the most popular To Be Continued projects of all time. Considering our previous projects have involved singing stones, tabletop magic shows, and booby-trapped Incan temples, that’s saying a lot!

We read the classic book The 13 Clocks, written by James Thurber, and illustrated by Marc Simont (Yearling, 1950). Once upon a time, in a castle full of stopped clocks, there lived a cold and ruthless Duke and his beautiful niece, the Princess Saralinda. Scores of suitors seek the Princess’ hand, but all are chased away, sent on impossible tasks, or slain for trivial reasons (such as starting at the Duke’s gloves for too long). One day Prince Zorn, disguised as a minstrel, asks for Saralinda’s hand. The cruel Duke decrees that Zorn must find 1,000 jewels in 99 hours. Also, when he returns, ALL the frozen castle clocks must be striking the hour. However…unlike the other suitors, Zorn has the help of the Golux – a funny little man with an indescribable hat and distinctly sideways logic. An impossible task, yes. But you never know. With the Golux, things might just work out happily ever after!

You’ll need:

  • 1 box lid
  • 1 box cutter
  • 1 circle of white card stock
  • A couple pieces of brown poster board or tagboard
  • 1 clock mechanism kit (more on this below)
  • Scissors and glue for construction
  • Markers for decorating

First, let’s talk about clock movements. You know the hour hand, minute hand, second hand, and the little motor that makes them move? All those parts are knows as a clock movement. You can find clock movement kits in the woodworking section of Michaels Craft store.

clock movementAt $8.50 a pop, they can get pricey, especially if you’re doing this project with multiple kids. However, you can find them for a couple bucks cheaper on Amazon. The important thing to keep in mind is the length of the motor’s shaft (i.e. the part that the clock hands slide on to). The shafts can range anywhere from .25″ to 1″.  For this project, you want to aim for the shorter shafts. Otherwise, your clock hands will stick pretty far out of your cardboard clock base. Also pay attention to the lengths of the clock hands. You don’t want them to extend past the body of your clock.

So…onto the clock! The project begins as a cardboard lid. We used these 9.5″ x 11″ cardboard trays (you might recognize them from this bear cave and this butterfly garden). Decide where you want your clock face to be, then drill a hole into the lid (I used an electric drill to keep things tidy). If you’re going to add a pendulum, you’ll also need to cut a narrow rectangular slit in the bottom of the box (our slit was .25″ x 3″ ).

clock box step 1Next, place a piece of tagboard and a circle of white card stock over the hole, then redrill the hole. The circle is your clock face, and the tagboard piece elevates the clock face a little bit.

clock box step 2Before you glue the tagboard and the clock face to the lid, however, you’ll want to use markers to add numbers and decoration to your clock face. Check out these awesome clock faces. The smiling kitty!

clock facesWhen your clock face is finished, glue it to your clock. Then start adding a bunch of tagboard flourishes. We cut a bunch of different shapes and styles of flourishes, and let the kids decide what they wanted to use on their clocks. The more layers and texture, the better it looks.

finished working clockYou can also use markers to decorate the clock. We offered Crayola metallic markers, and the results were fantastic.

decorated clocksWhen all the decorating is done, install the clock movement. Just follow the instructions on the packaging, add a battery (a single AA), and you’re done!

If you’d like to add a pendulum, punch a hole in one end of a narrow rectangle of tagboard, then glue a tagboard circle to the other end. Stick the top of the pendulum through the slit in the clock body, then thread a piece of balloon stick (or a drinking straw) through the hole. Secure the balloon stick to the inside of the box with tape. Here’s a shot of the interior of the clock box with the threaded pendulum.

attached pendulumTap the pendulum to watch it swing back and forth. Eventually, it winds down and comes to a stop, but while it’s swinging, the illusion of a working clock is quite real!

Race Around the Clock

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race around the clockGo beyond Hickory Dickory Dock with this clever crank clock!  Turn the handle on the back to send the characters dashing around the numbers and through the big red barn (scroll to the bottom of the post to see it in action)!

We read The Clock Struck One, written by Trudy Harris, and illustrated by Carrie Hartman (Millbrook Press, 2009). It’s 1pm and a mouse makes an untimely dash at just the wrong moment, catching the attention of the cat. A chase ensues that involves the mouse, the cat, the dog, some bees, the hen, the farmer’s wife, the farmer’s son, and the farmer! By 11pm, everyone is exhausted. By midnight, everyone is asleep. But at 1am, the clock strikes, and guess who’s in the wrong place at the wrong time again?

Kids loved this clock project, but parents were especially thrilled. Many sought me out after story time to thank me for such a fun introduction to numbers, clocks, and time.

You’ll need:

Begin by stacking both circles on top of one another, and using a box cutter to cut a slit in the middle of both. The top cardboard circle is the clock face. The bottom cardboard circle is the back of the clock.

First, the clock face! Cut, color, and glue (or tape) the numbers from the clock numbers template to the first cardboard circle. You can use markers to add flourishes to the clock face as well (we, for example, added a striped border). Next, trace the barn shape from the clock pieces template onto red poster board. Use markers to add outlines to the barn.

clock barnAttach the barn to the back of the clock face, right above the number 12. I highly recommend attaching the barn with hot glue. You really want the barn to stick because later, it can be used as a carrying handle for your clock! Here’s what the finished clock face looks like:

finished clock faceSet the finished clock face aside for a moment. Cut four, 1.5″ tabs in the end of a toilet paper tube. Then bend the tabs outward and hot glue the toilet paper tube to the back of the second cardboard circle:

clock handleYou’ll notice that the toilet paper handle gets glued on the perimeter of the cardboard circle. We experimented and found that was the best handle position for cranking the clock.

clock handle placementCut and color the animals from the template, and tape (or glue) them onto the ends of the craft sticks. Make sure there’s plenty of room at the bottom of the craft sticks – you’ll need some space to attach the sticks to the clock.

finished clock animalsTape the craft sticks to the cardboard circle. Note – the craft sticks need to be on the same side as the toilet paper tube handle. If the sticks are taped on the opposite side, they will rub and bump into your hand while you’re operating the clock. If you want to follow the order of the characters in the book, the mouse should go first, followed by the cat, dog, bees, and hen.

attached animalsThe back is done, time to put two clock circles together! Push a brass fastener through the clock face’s slit (you might need to enlarge the slit a little with a pair of scissors). Thread 2 foam beads on the fastener’s prongs:

clock tack step 1Push the prongs through the second circle’s slit, then unfold the prongs and secure in place with tape. Depending on your cardboard, foam beads, and brass fastener, you might have to do a little adjusting to get the circles to rotate smoothly.

clock tack step 2

Cut the minute and hour hands from the clock pieces template, then trace them onto red poster board. Arrange the hands to your preferred time, then attach them to the head of the brass fastener with a glob of hot glue. I say “glob of hot glue” because you want the hands to rest on the glob, slightly above the head of the brass fastener. If the hands are pressed flat to the head, they’ll get snagged on the clock numbers later. We stuck green mini dot sticker at the intersection of the clock hands. Done!

finished clockTo operate the clock, grip the clock face firmly at the bottom. Use your other hand to crank the toilet paper tube handle. You might have to adjust the animals a little, or bend the clock hands upward a bit, if they snag on the barn door or the numbers. But eventually, you’ll have a smooth race around the clock!

A quick word about a construction issue. You definitely need a 1.5″ brass fastener and foam spacers to get this project to work. You need that space in between the two cardboard circles in order to grip the clock, turn it, and have it operate smoothly. If the circles are too close together, animals repeatedly knock against your hand while the clock is turning. We experimented with shorter brass tacks, fewer foam beads, handles made out of 8″ craft sticks. Nope. The 1.5″ brass fastener with the 2 foam bead spacers is the combination that worked best!

Want to see my favorite project involving a brass fastener? Check out this little carousel!