activities

Chicken in a Cup

We may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this post. Please see policies for more information.

You know you love noisemakers! The cup acts as an amplifier for the vibrations you make with a wet paper towel and string making it sound sort of like a chicken!

I had seen this done before but found and verified the instructions from Science Bob!

All you need is a plastic cup, about 18-20″ of cotton string (or yarn), a paper clip and a paper towel.

An adult can punch a hole in the cup with a nail or other sharp object.

Put your string through the hole making sure not to pull it all the way through.

Tie a paper clilp to the top to keep the string from falling through.

To make your noises fold a small square of paper towel and get it a little wet (not dripping wet so you can wring it out if you get too much water on it) Pull the paper towel down around the string in short strong bursts.

You can play with different cups to see if it changes your sound! Have fun!

(Visited 1,945 times, 59 visits today)

Allison Waken is a wife, mom of boys and Phoenix, AZ native. She has been creating inspiring content for All for the Boys since 2011. Allison loves travel, movies and spending as much time as possible with her family while she can!

5 Comments

  1. My boys once made these at Thanksgiving (decorated the cup as a turkey!)
    We cut a small square of damp kitchen sponge instead of paper towel… would be fun to experiment with using different damp materials to see if there's difference in sounds.

    Thanks for reminding me about this- I think I'll plan to do it with my nieces & nephews on their next visit!

  2. We do this for the kids table at Thanksgiving, but call them turkey cups! ;D We use red solo cups and attache googly eyes, paper feathers, and a cardstock beak! They are SO FUN!!

  3. Hi! Music teacher here. This is a homemade version of a Afro-Brazilian drum called a cuica. You can see it here:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZC_D2CE4_0

    It is used frequently in samba music, and kids everywhere seem to love that squeaky sound.(There's something just a bit naughty about it, I guess.)

Write A Comment