Monkey see monkey do » games

The tea towel chook (dead and plucked!)

Hil — Fri, 11 Mar 2005 14:58:42 +0000

My friend Louise told me how to make this folded tea towel chicken; thanks Louise!

‘Lay a tea towel flat on the table, with the short sides at top and
bottom. Roll the top side down, stopping at the middle, then roll the bottom side up to touch. Fold the left side over on top of the right. Grasp each of the four corners from the middle of their rolls, then holding the two top in one hand and the two bottom in the other, pull it out.’

Apparently there is a story that is told as you fold, about the chook escaping and running up the hill and down the hill, (while you are rolling the tea towel from each end) with the farmer in pursuit. Then at the end you hold up the dead chook. If anyone remembers exactly how it goes, do please tell me!

The jumping hankerchief mouse

Hil — Sat, 19 Feb 2005 22:56:44 +0000

This looks complicated, but its not – its just long-winded to explain.

For this trick you need a man’s handkerchief or a square cloth of a similar size. Smooth it out flat (on a table) as in the diagram below, and then fold it upwards diagonally in half. Fold the corners in from each side so that the points meet in the middle at the bottom. From the bottom edge, roll the handkerchief upwards, but stop before you get to the top, so that the top corners peep out as a small triangle of cloth:

Turn your hand palm-side up and rest your fingers on the roll of handkerchief just below the triangle. Fold the triangle down over the tips of your fingers, and, keeping that in place, fold first the left side of the handkerchief roll across over your fingers and then the right side. Hold it firmly with your thumb: Now put the fingers of your other hand back-to-back with the fingers holding the handkerchief, slipping them up into the back of the handkerchief roll. The thumb of that hand will naturally rest on top of the handkerchief. Push your thumbs away from you, pushing down into the middle of the handkerchief roll, and almost turning it inside-out as your hands start to turn over. This will start an action of rolling each side of the roll in towards the middle. As you keep doing this, the material on the left side will gradually wind onto the right-hand side, and two ends of handkerchief will shake out, so that the handkerchief now looks like a weird Christmas cracker. One end is the mouse’s tail, but the other one has a knot tied in it to make the head. To make the knot pull the edges of one of the tails out gently sideways, and then fold the point back towards the body, making a triangle. The two points of the triangle that stick out can then be used as the ends when you make a simple hand-over knot, twisting one end over the other and back through the hole. Pull the knot tight to make the head, with the ends becoming the mouse ears. Now to make it jump! Place the mouse in your cupped hand, with its head looking up your arm, and your fingers curled gently and tucked under its bum:
These fingers can now act like a spring, pushing the mouse forward suddenly whenever you want. Put your other hand over the top and pet the mouse to hide the action. You can make the mouse look restless and if its trying to escape out of your hands if you make the action light, or make it jump out of your hands by giving it a good push. You can aim it up your arm, and then make it look as if its running right up to your shoulder by lightly using your right hand to very quickly and repeatedly pick up and drop the mouse as you push it up your arm. If this is done well it is very realistic!Its fun to make the mouse restless and ‘naughty’, and then give it to someone else to pet and see if they can make it settle down. Of course its docile and ‘good’ for them, but when they give it back to you to stroke, it immediately misbehaves, jumping out of your hand and up your arm into our hair!

Nasturtiums

Hil — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 15:21:07 +0000

Nasturtium leaves are very cool to mess around with. Pick a large nasturtium leaf, and try to catch some water in it. Something about the surface of the leaf resists the liquid completely, so that the water forms into beautiful round silvery drops that race around and off the leaf before you know it. They behave like mercury (have you ever broken a mercury thermometer?), but are not poisonous like mercury.

Catching the water is fun itself, but then you can try to see how big a drop your leaf can hold. Or see how many small drops its possible to accommodate on your leaf, since the moment two drops touch, they become one bigger drop. Or you can run races and see who can go furthest and fastest before your drop slips out of the leaf.

I know an elderly man who recalls riding to school on a horse, and stopping on the way to pick young nasturtium leaves to put between slices of bread for his lunch. The leaves have a really nice peppery taste, and are high in vitamin C. You do get more sophisticated nasturtium sandwich recipes, and there are numerous ways to use the flowers and leaves in cooking and medicine. The whole plant is edible and regarded as a herb. The seeds can be pickled and substituted for capers. And, of course, the flowers themselves are the most beautiful oranges, reds and yellows.

How to make a balancing moth

Hil — Sat, 18 Dec 2004 23:09:08 +0000

Magic moths are lots of fun. When your moth is made you can make it hover with just its nose resting on your fingertip, the rim of a glass, or even the point of a pin.

Click on the moth to pop-up the full-size image, download it, and then print it out onto thin card. The 18cm (7in) wing span is ideal, but it will work whatever size you make it. Cut around the outline. Colour it in or decorate it if you want to.

Now you just have to add a small weight underneath both wing tips. The easiest thing to use is a little blob of blu-tack (tack-n-stick). You could also try using small coins, buttons, or magnets, sticky-taped under the wing tips. Blobs of hot glue would likely work too. Or you can slip paper clips onto the tips.When you have the weights attached, put your fingertip under its nose and see if it balances as if its hovering. If the weights are too heavy the wings will droop too much, and if they are too light the moth will fall off your finger. If one wing is heavier than the other, of if you have not placed the weights symmetrically (in the same spot on each tip), the moth will pull to one side and fall off. Make small adjustments until its balances easily.Now you can run around the house seeing all the different amazing places you can balance your moth. These make cool presents!

This pattern was scanned from a ‘magic moth’ I have had for many years, and I can’t find any attribution on it to pass on. If you want to, you can just use the outlined shape and draw in your own wing patterns. You can also try changing the shape a little to make a balancing butterfly or bird.

You may see this trick in other forms: you can buy plastic balancing birds, and balancing wine bottle holders. I’ve also seen a gravity defying frog pattern.