Weaving Stories with Grade 4

There is something about a weaving that seems so much more lasting than other art forms. They seem to stand the test-of-time, making it through many spring cleanings. Or maybe I just think that because my in-laws still have a sweet little weaving that my husband made in elementary school tacked up to their dining room wall. (My husband vows that since he made it, it has never moved from that place).  

There's also a satisfaction that comes from working with something tactile and maniplulating soft materials such as thick, heavy wool, that children seem to love.

For this grade 4 weaving project, I was inspired by a fabulous post over at New City Arts.

In these cardboard loom weavings, students were asked to tell the story of an important family memory. They made a sketch and planned out their colours beforehand, each representing a component of their story. Then they learned how to string the loom and weave.  

The weavings took a while to get going, and many students had false starts, but after some one-to-one coaching and a few good lines in a row, they all got the hang of it. And then they loved it. 

When they were finished, I had them make a good copy of their colour key to display with their weaving. I put them together side-by-side in a clear plastic sleeve to display outside the art room. 

Here are some gems:

 

Grade 4 Leaf Prints and Weavings

This is my latest Grade 4 project and the results were very impressive. Students loved the whole process from painting the paper, printing the leaves, and weaving the grasses. I found the lesson here on:  A Faithful Attempt with step-by-step instructions that I pretty much followed to a tee. We used 9 x 12 heavy sulphite paper, tempera pucks to paint the background, black tempera for the leaf printing, and wild grasses (found growing beside some train tracks) for the weaving. (The cars driving by me that morning at 7am chopping down grasses with massive garden shears must have though I was a crazy woman!)

This lesson was originally done by seventh graders (on A Faithful Attempt), but my fourth graders had no problem with it at all.