The last week of school was a fourth grade frenzy of fiber art. All the kids wanted to finish their embroidery work to bring home as presents. I gave them options to use a backing piece of felt as a frame, or to make a pocket or a pillow. Most of them chose a pillow.
I'm really proud of them. They worked really hard to have good craftsmanship. Embroidery is a great medium for developing fine motor skills, patience, and perseverance. There were moments of frustration and some poked fingers of course, but there was also a wonderful buzz of stitching and the joy of handwork.
Kids need opportunities to make things. Not just pictures, but things that can be used or have purpose. They need to know about craftspeople as well as about artists. Not everybody is destined to become an artist, but everyone should know how to make things.
By the way, contrary to popular belief, boys enjoy sewing. In fact 2 of these pictures were made by boys- can you guess which ones? One more reason I'm proud of my 4th graders- we got through 3 weeks of stitching with 4 classes and didn't lose a single needle! Whoohoo!
I'm enjoying my holiday break, but I also am looking forward to getting back to school...
I love the idea of having one in the classroom for the kids to use! LOVE LOVE!
ReplyDeleteThese are great! What type of needle and yarn did you use to work on the muslin and felt?
ReplyDeleteI use chenille needles with the 3rd and 4th graders. They have extra big eyes that are easier to thread. Most of the kids figure it out, but stitching definitely demands a lot of hands on needle-threading and knot-tying, and mistake-fixing from the teacher. I got balls of crochet thread since it was cheaper than perle cotton (my usual thread of choice)and we were using limited color- red and black. 5 balls were plenty for 4 classes on this project, and that was with a LOT of wasted thread. I don't like using floss with kids because it gets all tangled up.
ReplyDeleteI also have a set of wooden embroidery hoops I use with the kids. They stitched their image on the white cotton first and then mounted it on felt.I folded and stapled the cotton to the felt to "pin" it in place while they finished, and then removed the staples afterward. We used construction paper crayons colored on the back of paper drawings to transfer to the cotton.
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