Photo credit: Will Heap.Kyle Books (Images from 101 Things For Kids To Do Outside)
Today is taking 'blustery' to a whole new level, so perhaps it's fitting that I'm writing about wind clunks. And, yes I did say 'clunks' because, let's face it, whatever noise is made when two bits of wood crash together it is definitely not a chime.
In fact when I was coming up with a name for this project in my book (101 Things For Kids To Do Outside), I had to turn to Twitter for help. I love Twitter. It's like one enormous water cooler with millions of us hanging around desperately trying to avoid work. Which is why there were plenty of brilliant minds happy to spend a few moments working out the best onomatopoeic expression for colliding sticks.
And so the wind clunk was born.
If you want to make one with the children this half term you will need some chunky sticks. Hunt around in the garden or out on walks to find about 10 to 15 you can use. Ideally they will be quite straight and all slightly different thicknesses and lengths as this makes for a more tuneful sound.
And if you want to create a more colourful 'clunk' then you can decorate your sticks with acrylic paint. If you coat them with primer first, the acrylic paint will also look brighter.
Now take some tiny metal screw eyes (you can buy these in most DIY/hardware stores) and attach them to the centre of one end of each stick. Push in hard to start them off and then just turn them in as far as they will go.
Thread a piece of twine or string through the eye and tie it in a knot. Now thread the other end through one of the holes in an old colander, from the inside to the outside. Finally, knot this enough times so it won't pass back through the hole.
Keep doing this at regular intervals until all your sticks are dangling down from the colander when it is held upside down. Finally thread a long length of twine through two equally spaced holes in the base of the colander and use this to hang up your wind clunk from a tree branch.
Tomorrow... planting up a bulb bucket.
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