The Hickory Dickory Dock Rock Clock!

Make a rock clock as a fun Hickory Dickory Dock nursery rhyme activity for kids, for a fun hands on way to practise writing, numeral recognition and clock reading skills through play.

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This is the first post of a brand new series called Rhyme Time!

I’m so excited to be joining some really lovely bloggers in bringing you a bunch of nursery rhyme extension crafts and activities for all your favourite nursery rhyme songs. Yay!!

The first nursery rhyme off the chopping block is a favourite of mine: Hickory Dickory Dock.

Hickory Dickory Dock,
the mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck one,
the mouse ran down,
Hickory Dickory Dock.

Hickory Dickory Dock,
the mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck two,
the mouse said ‘Achooo!’,
Hickory Dickory Dock.

Hickory Dickory Dock,
the mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck three,
the mouse said ‘Weeeee!’,
Hickory Dickory Dock.

Hickory Dickory Dock,
the mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck four,
the mouse said ‘No more!’,
Hickory Dickory Dock.

I’m not sure if these are the ‘official Hickory Dickory Dock lyrics’, but this is what we sing at our place anyway.

To make our rock clock, my 4.5 year old daughter JJ wrote the numbers 1-12 on dark grey rocks from our garden, using a metallic silver Sharpie permanent marker. (Metallic gold markers also work well on dark coloured rocks – or you could also try using a liquid paper pen).

Some of the numbers are a bit hard to decifer, but that’s the point really – to give JJ a chance to practise her writing skills in a playful way. It’s also a good opportunity to see how she is going with her numeral recognition skills. The numbers 6, 7, 9, 10, 11 and 12 are tricky for her: she still can’t ‘read’ these numbers yet, but she works out what they are based on their position in the sequence.

This was also a good chance to talk about and practise how to read an analog clock. We studied JJ’s white clock to work out where the numbers should go, and what length and thickness the hands should be. We used twigs for our rock clock hands, and talked about how we needed a short one for the hour hand and a longer one for the minute hand (and because her white clock also happened to have a second hand, we used a skinny twig to represent that too).

We used a cute little pebble mouse that we’d made earlier, but you could use any sort of mouse toy.

(I’m not 100% sure what’s going on with all the soil, but that part was JJ’s idea, so we’ll just go with it, OK?)

I helped JJ set up the position of the hands. “The long hand is pointing to the 12, that means it is ‘something o’clock‘. And the short hand is pointing to the 1. So it must be ?”

And then it came time to sing! We sang Hickory Dickory Dock all the way from 1-12. From 5 o’clock onwards, we just made up non-nonsensical rhyming words to fill in the blanks in the nursery rhyme (which JJ thought was hilarious).  JJ helped the mouse run up to whatever number o’clock as we went along.

These rocks now live in our backyard. The silver marks don’t wash off in the rain. Usually our Rock Clock is just a pile of rocks off to the side of the garden, but every so often, I’ve set it up on the pavers outside, as a little invitation to play.

Sometimes their singing wafts in through the kitchen window. “Hickory Dickory Dock, the mouse ran to the – one. The clock struck – one, the mouse went down to the bottom again. Hickory Dickory Dock.” 🙂

See below for some more fun ways to play Hickory Dickory Dock style!

You could:

• make a Hickory Dickory Dock Felt Clock, including learning games for both 5 & 7 year olds from Multicraftingmummy,
• chase a mechanical mouse around a Hickory Dickory Dock Tuff Spot like Adventures of Adam,
• practise pattern recognition with this Hickory Dickory Dock Matching Clothespin Game from Best Toys For Toddlers,
• or practise geometry with these Hickory Dickory Dock Shapes from Teach Me Mommy.

This is the first post for Rhyme Time! Every second Wednesday, my blogging buddies and I will each bring you a fun craft, game or activity to go along with a particular nursery rhyme. So make sure to pop back in a fortnight for our next nursery rhyme. Wonder what it’s going to be???

I’m pinning these, and lots more nursery rhyme ideas here:

(PS: Have you got a favourite nursery rhyme? Feel free to make a special request in the comments!)

xx Danya

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