Week of 2/20/22 - Weaving with 4th and 5th grade

 4th and 5th grade students started a lesson on weaving this week. Having studied textile design while pursuing my Masters degree in India, this lesson is especially close to  my heart! Last year I had attached the warp to a cardboard loom for each student but this year I decided to have the students do it themselves! I also had cardboard looms that each student could take home via a Donor's Choose fundraiser back in December.

I first showed students a close up of a piece of fabric and we discussed what we were seeing - the overlapping, texture, direction of the yarn among other things. I then explained the concept of weaving and explained the terms - warp (vertical yarn), weft (horizontal yarn), loom (where weaving is done). We looked at weavers from Mexico and Ghana. I shared my saree from India and explained how there are weavers to this day that are create hand woven sarees that take up to a week to make!

 Each student was given a cardboard loom and a long piece of yarn. We added the warp together and experimented with pre-cut yarn of different thickness to add as weft to create weaving. Each student added a new piece of weft by knotting it to the previous. I differentiated the lesson by having 5th graders add extra weft to create interest.

 Students helped each other during the process - I love this collaborative aspect of this lesson :)

Since I have 4th graders for an extra 45 minutes until May of this year, I had them complete their glue batik that we had started a during last rotation. Each table had a tub of water where they soaked their batik work and then scrubbed the glue using tooth brushes and scrubbers. i I ironed each work to return to the students.