ALWAYS TIE THE WARP...Not the time warp.

So I have been working and co-teaching with an art teacher in Powers, Michigan over the past year and she gave me some lesson plans for weaving. I thought she meant large, free-standing loom weaving and I was wary. Instead, she had given me templates for students to make their own looms out of strips of cardboard! I was experimenting with the process last night and I almost pulled my entire weaving apart, but now I understand what I did wrong... Always learning.

I opted to take on the challenge of weaving a pouch. I wanted to try out this craft for some of my older campers seeing as my co-teacher has such success with it in her older grades.

 ** Very important! Pull weaving TIGHT on warp threads. This will ensure a secure weaving consistency and a way easier time finishing the piece.**

 My mistake occurred when I pulled the weaving off of the loom and forgot how to tighten and trim the warp threads. This left me with a bunch of loops at the top, or opening, of the pouch. I opted to sew the edges to try and correct my mistake.. we'll see if it holds!

The correct process is to cut the warp loops and tie them together to close them again. This creates a chain between the warp threads and the weaving... sewing was a giant pain. I recommend doing it right the first time!!

 All in all, didn't turn out too bad! It took about 2.5 hours of weaving, not including preparation of the looms (of which I made over 20). I translate that to almost three craft cabin sessions (est. 50minutes each)

I will have students measure out the increments for their loom's teeth when we get to this project.. and instead of doing demonstration before the project begins I will do a walk-along project with them. We can all learn together and all possibly mess up- and correct mistakes- together too.

Here are some of the links I used for reference. Picture-heavy, but very helpful and easy to understand!

Link to simple weaving pattern instructions
There's a Dragon in my Art Room: 5th Graders Weave Pouches!

Ms. K

I'm pretty proud of my snakey care sheet ;)  

What we have so far...

Here's the inside of Rockland Arts and Crafts cabin! I was really lucky to have 'inherited' so many different supplies and materials. I have been working hard to plan to the materials at hand (to save time and money). I am putting together a binder of projects so I can just turn to the correct week/age group. The other advantage is my projects can meet several different zones of proximal development; meaning, lots of different age groups can participate and easily make projects outside their age group.



 These are the first few craft examples/samples I've made for the different age groups:

These little birds are going to be one of the Open House activity options on June 8th. Pine cones, feathers, craft glue, googly eyes, and construction paper! Simple, yet effective.. and funny.

Middle school camper project: This was a really cool craft I found online. All you have to do is melt beads in a tray in a toaster oven. The beads form together as they melt down and can be made into sun catchers! I am going to experiment with more translucent and transparent beads, since these are obviously not see-through. But they still look cool!

I might allow this project with the younger campers, but since it uses the toaster oven I would have to supervise a lot more closely..

Elementary/Middle school Camp classic - Gods Eye craft. I used sticks I found outside the cabin and we have SO MUCH YARN... it's intimidating.

 I think I will offer dream catchers as a challenge craft.... I swore a lot.

 AHH I'm super excited about this one :) this will be for the elementary camps. I am lucky enough to be able to keep Cézanne as the 'classroom pet' so I want the kids to learn a little about snakes. This is the template for the project.

Get the idea? We can hang them from the ceiling or tape them to the walls. I am working on a little introduction to snake life for this project.

Cézanne!

Here's Cézanna - my snake's paper girlfriend. She lives on my desk now :)

 Middle/high school camper project. Made out of pop tops and yarn. I already have requests for some.

Middle/high school camper project: I haven't decided if this one will be a challenge project or not. The challenge is keeping enough interest to finish it! You draw the silhouette of an animal and then fill it in with coiled newspaper and glue them down... it takes a while to complete, but the results are pretty cool.

All ages project: REALLY COOOOOOL. My uncle lent me his table loom to work with and I hope to get the kids interested - at least a little bit - in weaving and traditional fabric crafts. I will have this as a challenge project and kids can weave a few rows when they have free time or, with permission, can sit and weave for an extended amount of time and maybe make something to take home. I will be bringing my sewing machine (a necessary evil) to finish off the weavings. SO excited :)

That's about it for now.. I have been going to camp every couple of days to make more samples and so far I am confident in most of my choices :) Looking forward to this summer and alllllllll the craziness it will bring.

Ms. K

Avoiding Glitter

Hey all! I wanted to start a blog to use as a journal for my Arts and Crafts Director experience... I want this blog to serve as a day-by-day record of the activities/events at camp! I will have a different age group to work with every week so the challenges will never really stop.

The first post will be an overview of the projects I have planned.

I hope you enjoy!

--Ms. K