Week of 1/3/24 and 1/8/24 - 4th and 5th graders

 How is it 2024 already?!! We started school in the New Year on Wednesday, 1/3/24 and I rearranged our 4th and 5th grade schedules a bit differently to accommodate all classes equitably!

4th and 5th graders started on their cardboard loom lesson - this is one of my favorite lessons because I get to talk about textiles!! 

I start the class by having students look at pieces of fabric, their jackets, pants and shoe laces through a magnifying glass. We talk about the yarn they notice and how they appear criss-cross on certain fabrics and diagonal on other fabrics. I introduce the words, loom, warp, weft, yarn and textiles/ cloth/fabric. I share my Saree from India and discuss how this is handwoven while most fabric these days including the clothes they are wearing is woven using machines.

We then look at weaving videos from different parts of the world - Ghana, India and Mexico and it's always nice to see students share how they have seen textiles like the ones shown or have seen them elsewhere.

 I give each student a cardboard loom with a long piece of pre-measured yarn. I show them how to tape one end of the yarn to the back and use this as the warp by going through the notches. Once done they tape the other end so their loom is ready. I have shorter pieces of yarn available at each table and we first practice how to tie knots as this is integral to the weaving process. I show students how to add the weft by going over and under from one side to the other, make a U turn and repeat until they have a small piece left that they can tie to a new piece of weft and continue the process. I remind them also to use forks or their fingers to pack the yarn close together without too many gaps between the warp strings.

Most students were able to add 4-5 pieces of weft to their work.

 

5th returned to start work on our 3D printing design for their 45 minutes class. This year they will be creating name key chains. I set up classes on the Tinkercad website and tested out a few samples during the holidays so I could have an idea as to what problems students could potentially run into while designing theirs. Each class came in with their Chromebooks and I provided them with mouses to make it easier for them. We practiced first logging into their Tinkercad classroom, learning the various terms such as practicing the different tools such as  work plane, undo, redo buttons, looking for basic shapes, rotation button among many others. Students dragged the letters of their name onto the work plane such that each letter was 5mm tall. I also gave them the website name, user ID and nickname on a piece of paper they could tape to their Chromebook so they will be able to practice at home. We will continue this next class.

Zamorano received a generous grant from the New Children's Museum to have a circular loom for our school and have artist Michelle Montjoy work with all 5th grade students on a looping project. We also had teaching artists from NCM come to assist Michelle. We had a fantastic day with students working on the looms and creating looping using t-shirt yarn. We will continue this work during our rotations with 5th graders over the new few weeks.