Second Grade Cuckoo Clocks

First Graders  learned about the hand carved Cuckoo Clocks of the Black Forest of Germany. They saw how a little bellows inside the clock makes the chirp of the bird.
                                         





 We saw a  picture of a real Cuckoo bird.
                                        



 There are two types of Cuckoo Clocks: Traditional-hand-carved, and  Chalet.
                                 





 The Chalet has movable carved wooden figures and a music box. The children saw videos of actual Cuckoo Clocks Chirping and playing music.  Our first  step was to texture paint paper, using paint combs. 

The next step  used rulers to measure and cut looms with warp strips and weft strips for weaving. I have found over the years that weaving is a  tough  cognitive concept for 2nd graders. Some grasp it right away ,while others struggle. They have to alternate how they begin each row of weaving and go over under one warp strip at a a time.These second graders are really on the ball!!  Most got it right away! After gluing the ends down to secure the weaving, they helped each other. It was really sweet to see them working with each other.

This is a cool project because it includes many steps and processes. The background entailed printing patterns using cardboard strips and tempera paint . They came up with a lot of great patterns using only stamped lines. Next week we will cut the clock body and create a clock face with traditional Roman Numerals.