Leverage

I've been agonizing over the homeschooler programs for 2012 this past week.  January and February fell into place on their own, but March and April are a struggle.  My first idea was the robotic hand made from corrugated cardboard, rubber bands, straws, string, and several rolls of tape.  The age range makes these programs difficult.  Whole families show up and I have to have something or things that will provide interest to K through 12.  Gah!

My next project idea was from a book on levers, because, well, robotic hands are levers, right?  The project is absolutely charming.  A bird flies away as a cat jumps out at it.  It took hours to color the scenery, not to mention work out the mechanics.  The instructions only pertained to assembly of the scenery, which is complicated enough.  The instructions for the mechanical innards amounted to, "You read the book - figure it out yourself."  Now, I only have these kids for an hour, even if I cut all the levers out and hole-punch them for them, coloring and assembly would take too long.

But it so cute! ...

Birdie sits on the ground until ...

... cat leaps out of the bush.

I went back to the book and found the wooden example of the pecking chickens that provided the pattern for the innards and decided that would be simple enough.  So this will be the project:

Pecking chickens

This one was made with enlarged clip art glued to card stock and cut pieces of card stock with those great brass fasteners.  As you can see, there was a bit of trial and error involved.  Some scrap corrugated cardboard will be involved in the actual project, pre-cut.  More fiddly work of coloring, cutting out the chickens, gluing them to card stock should fill up the hour.