Hickory Dickory Dock

Age: 4 & up, younger with help
Difficulty rating: 3 out of 5 (younger kids need more help)
Messiness rating: minimal

Simple, cute and quick, this craft takes the old nursery rhyme Hickory Dickory and brings it to life!

Hickory Dickory Dock.

The mouse ran up the clock.

The clock struck one,

And down he run.

Hickory Dickory Dick.

The mouse can move up and down the string, letting it run "up the clock" for a visual component to the rhyme. We had a ton of fun with this craft--thought I must say it is not all that easy for tiny hands. But with help, you can have a cute-as-can-be puppet too!

Materials needed:
Construction paper: brown, yellow, gray (or blue), red and white
Scissors (should be pretty sharp)
Craft knife (to make things easier!)
Whole punch
Yarn

We actually did not have a craft knife or a hole punch, but they would have been nice! Scissors will do for all you need.

The Craft:
1. Cut out the following:
*teardrop shape in gray (we used blue since we didn't have gray)
*Rectangle in brown
*Decorative pieces for the top and bottom of the clock in brown
*Ears in red
*Middle rectangle in yellow
*Clock face in white
2. Draw a face on the mouse. If you have some small enough googly eyes, those would be epic.
3. Draw the numbers on the clock face.
4. Glue the clock face, the top and bottom decorations and the smaller rectangle on the larger rectangle.
5.Fold the mouse shape in half, and cut (carefully) along the lines. This is made tons easier with a craft knife--for adults, obviously.
6. Fold the ears in half, lengthwise. Slip them through the slits made in the mouse.
7. Run a 12" (or so)piece of yarn through the "loop" on the back of the mouse where the ears are.
8. Poke a hole in the bottom of the mouse.
9. Cut a 3" piece of yarn and tie a knot in one end.
10. Run the unknotted end through the back of the hole and out the front. The knot, which should be on the back, will hold the yard in place as the tail of the mouse.
11. Punch a hole (with a hole punch, or scissors) in at the top of the clock. We put ours between the middle of the clock and the face of the clock. If you punch it where there are two layers of construction paper, the final product will be sturdier.
12. Punch a hole at the bottom of the clock also.
13. Take the yarn that is behind the mouse's ears and stick one end in the top hole, and the other end in the bottom hole.
14. Tie in the back.

And there you have it! Your Hickory Dickory Dock Mouse puppet! I really liked how these turned out, personally. :) Hope you do too!

Here is a template: (which clearly needs help, but if you click on it it brings up a larger version, which maybe you can print from there? Until I get it fixed, I guess you could copy, paste in word or paint and print. Sorry for that.)