Primary Weaving- Collaborative & Choice

I introduced a weaving concept to each grade at my primary school.

Kindergarten- Basic idea of weaving- over-under/ collaboration

1st Grade- Paper Weaving options

2nd Grade- Embellishing options for paper weaving

3rd Grade- Yarn weaving

Instead of asking each Kindergarten student to complete their own weaving project, I really just wanted them to understand what weaving is and to practice the over-under pattern. My first idea was to have each Kindergartener take a short break from their choice project to come to my table and practice weaving one strip in one of the large paper looms (12x18 inches) I'd cut for each class. After each student finished his/her strip, they wrote their name on one of the squares they'd created.

That proved to be a time consuming venture. After two days, a better idea came to me. After the introduction in my last Kindergarten classes, I sent students back to their tables where they worked with their groups to weave strips through 9x12 inch paper looms I'd precut. Not only was it faster, there was teamwork and problem solving. Only one student wove at a time, but they helped each other remember the pattern.

Other than in Kindergarten and 1st grade, weaving projects were optional for the students. Not all of the 2nd graders chose to weave paper, but I think all but a few 3rd graders did because they were SO excited about using yarn. I've found that the easiest looms for students to use are made from foam trays. The space between the suspended yarn and the bottom of the tray makes it easier for students than weaving on a flat surface. We displayed the yarn weaving projects by stapling the piece to a 6x9 inch piece of paper labeled with the student's  name.

Many students tried cutting different designs in the planning of their paper looms. The students who wanted a more traditional grid-like weaving used a precut 1 inch strip to trace the lines they would soon cut.

 Some 1st graders used their paper weavings as an interesting background for something else.

 Here are some 2nd grade projects exploring more ideas for embellishing weavings. From left to right, there is a weaving project with a handprint, weaving through painted paper, weaving through a marker drawing of tie-dye, and circles collaged on top with the letters of the student's name on top.

 Weaving projects with stamped paint on top.

More students want to do extra work outside of class on yarn weaving than on any other project. This student stuck to the rainbow pattern for the entire project. She worked on it in art class for a few weeks before taking scraps to finish it during recess.

Weaving has proven to be a very engaging project for my students over the last few years. Weaving is also one of the lowest cost projects. The looms were made either from meat trays I saved and sanitized at home or from recycled cardboard or mat board. I've also picked up 2 trash bags full of yarn at garage sales for under $5 total. It lasts a long time! I did buy some plastic weaving needles and though they were also very affordable, they are not necessary. Students can weave just using their fingers.

Over the summer I hope to try weaving a pouch. I've seem some lessons online but haven't yet had time to give it a go.

Do your students love weaving as much as mine?

Yarn!

Fibers is a common studio choice in TAB (Teaching for Artistic Behavior). I didn't have a ton of fibers options last year, but I did make lots of yarn available. Weaving was the most obvious choice for using yarn, but students made use of it in other ways, too.

An old shoe organizer worked pretty well for holding skeins of yarn.

I started 4th graders off weaving in the fall and introduced it to one grade at a time since it was so popular that every loom was used. I introduced it to my 3rd graders in the spring and ran out of time to introduce it to 2nd grade.

I made almost all of my looms, most out of mat board or cardboard scraps. I started off measuring but eventually started eyeballing and just going for the same number of slits cut on each side. The mat board looms worked pretty well, but the easiest for the students to use were looms made of foam trays. I saved (and thoroughly washed) foam meat trays from home and used them at school. The students have an easier time going under the yarn when there's some space below to move. The trays hold up really well, unless the students pull to hard when warping and break a tab.

A 3rd grader asked if she could glue yarn down to make a picture. I let her use scraps and I think she would have kept working on this even longer if it hadn't been so close to the end of the year!

Speaking of scraps.... Sometimes ^THIS happens. My intermediate kids were pretty careless when it came to the scrap yarn, often just throwing it on top, and cutting way too much yarn to begin with. Many ignored the "wingspan at a time" rule. I will have to work on a better monitoring system for that this year. 

One of my 6th graders used a longer loom and ended up turning her weaving project into a hat. I thought it was pretty clever.

My 3rd graders used a larger loom and scrap yarn to make this group project which was donated to the PTO auction. I hoped to have each student weave one scrap of yarn but had to let some go back and add multiple strips to fill it in. I think we'll try it again next year on the even bigger classroom loom I ordered with Artsonia money.

I ordered a box of yarn at one school where we started to run out of some colors, but I think we're already set for the coming school year. I've scored some good deals at garage sales- like a trash bag full of assorted yarns for a dollar- and had another trash bag full donated by my husband's aunt, a retired school teacher. I'm glad that yarn is one supply that can be found so cheap!

Weaving with "Real Yarn"!

This fall was the first time I had taught weaving* to students with anything other than construction paper. I had always waited because I didn't have enough looms. Since I've been trying out choice based art this year, I decided to give it a go, not expecting the project to be so popular! I offered weaving to 4th graders and it quickly became apparent that I would need to make more looms. I think out of 110ish 4th graders, there were only about 5 who chose another project. At least 2 of those students tried it out later. I had about 30 chipboard looms that I had ordered. Thankfully, I have a big supply of mat board scraps and cardboard. It was super easy and pretty quick to make looms.

*Since we were studying American Indian cultures, I told them the story of Spider Woman and how she brought weaving to the Navajo people. Read the story HERE.

I used a ruler and a box knife to cut rectangles. I didn't worry about measuring, just getting my edges straight. Next, I took a big pile and marked little dashes in half inch increments on two opposite sides. I did this while trapped at my desk pumping. Oh, the things working moms do. :) After marking the sides, I used a pair of scissors to cut little slits. Some students helped with this step, and I had to cut the slits a bit deeper later since I didn't explain that the tiny marks were just to show where to cut, not the exact size the cuts should be. Lesson learned.

Here is one of the mat board looms.

Someone pointed out that I could have just skipped the measuring step and eyeballed the cuts, putting the same number of slits in each side. That would have made it a bit faster, but having grown up with a perfectionist carpenter father, it's not in my nature! I have more mat board scraps that I will turn into looms at my other school, and I'm also going to try using foam meat trays to see how that goes. Cardboard worked ok, but the mat board looms are holding up better.

 One of the hardest parts was just getting the looms warped. It was a hard concept to loop around the notches at the top and come back down the front instead of wrapping all the way around front and back. I had a pretty big stash of yarn from my predecessor that was stored in a big cardboard box. I got most of it untangled and displayed in an over the door shoe holder. I added some leftover yarn from projects I'd done at home and my mom scored some yeins of neon colored yarn at a garage sale. The brightly colored yarns, textured yarns, and variegated yarns were the most popular. I let students totally be in charge of which and how many colors they would use. Some worked in patterns or color families, some just experimented or went with their gut, choosing yarns they were drawn to.

I had just planned to show how to weave in stripes, but some students really picked that up quickly and wanted more. Two other options I demonstrated were splitting the weaving and rejoining it, and making zigzag patterns.

 I usually just said anyone who was interested could come around a table to see how to make the different patterns. I had SO MANY kids in my room during recess to work on their weavings. They were so excited to work with "REAL YARN"! They were even telling younger siblings about it and talking about plans to make their own looms at home. They were discussing how big of a loom they would need to make a blanket, how much they would sell said blankets for ($10, what a steal!), and talking about what they would do with their projects.

The other hardest part was tying all the knots to take weavings off looms. With the risk of sounding much older than my 27 years, "kids these days" don't know how to tie simple knots! This took a lot of time and help.

I needed a way to display the weavings in the hall, and what worked best for us, was to connect the projects to a piece of black construction paper with one staple and have the students write their names in colored pencil. We used the RoseArt Metallic Colored Pencils I was given and they worked great on black paper. I'm usually a Crayola girl but really like these RoseArt pencils. I couldn't find them when ordering supplies, but I just located them on Amazon.

When the projects came down, it was easy to remove the one staple without damaging the weaving.

 Most students finished in 3-4 classes but some are not yet finished. I didn't set a size requirement or anything like that, so as the semester went on, weaving projects started shrinking! We ended up with some funny little weavings, like one below that's around 15 rows. These were sometimes made by students who just weren't that in to weaving, but more often by those that tried and tried, but struggled.

 6th graders will have the option to weave next, and since most of them wove with yarn last year (CYOA: Weaving), I'm excited to see what they do this year!

6th Choice- Yarn

This is the 6th and final post about my 6th graders' choice art projects to end the year. You can read the first explanatory post here. This is sort of a weird category- not all fibers, but all projects that utilized the yarn I had out for the 5th grade Choose Your Own Adventure fibers lesson!

The first photo shows a student working on her project next to her plan. I asked all the students to fill out an "Independent Project Proposal" form to help them brainstorm and think about what they would need for their projects. This student's plan was very detailed. On the back of her paper she sketched her idea and added notes and labels to keep organized. Most students were not that detailed, and I understand. It's good to have a plan, but sometimes hard to know exactly what you want to do until you start working.

Here is her finished project. The green looks sort of black in the photo. Knowing this student, I think she probably would have added more yarn somewhere in the background if we hadn't run out of time.

Here, a group of students all using yarn organized themselves into a group. Two of the girls are weaving bracelets, one teaching the other the technique. Another is wrapping yarn around her cardboard cross to add pattern and texture.

Here is one of the finished bracelets with a button clasp the student rigged up. You'll notice her wrist says "Pray 4 Rylee". About a month ago, one of my former students who had moved on to the middle school was struck by a car while riding her bicycle on the shoulder of the road. She was very seriously injured- broken bones, part of her leg amputated, internal and brain injuries. We are kept updated by a Facebook page and she seems to be making good progress, but still has a long road ahead of her. It was amazing to feel the sense of community as students and staff at both my schools wanted to help. Her Facebook page currently has over 2,400 likes so lots of people are praying for Rylee and her family. I thought it was cool that we captured that coming-togetherness with the record of this art project.

This student helped me see a big difference in the student thought process using a choice based approach in art class. She had her cross cut out, painted, and wrapped with yarn and came to talk to me about what to do next. She wanted to add something in the center. I should have written down how our conversation went when it was fresher in my mind, but basically, from asking her questions about what she was thinking and how she wanted to complete her project, I could see how much more thought was going into the materials and the process. When the project is designed by the teacher, even trying to allow for individuality, the teacher is putting way more thought into the materials and the process than the students. I saw students thinking about what would work best, how to secure things, what materials would work best together, wondering what would happen if they try this, etc. It was wonderful and I really feel like this is the direction I want to continue heading with my instruction.