Woven Basket Heads

My undergrad was for Crafts with a concentration in Fiber Design. If you just read that and are thinking "What in the world does that mean?" Don't worry, your not the first! I went on an interview right after I graduated (undergrad) and they though I had a concentration in Fiber-OPTICS. Yea, no way!
I took courses in weaving, needle felting, felting, knotless netting, etc. Then I went back to school to get my teaching cert. to teach k-12 art education.

SOOOOOOO.. what I am getting at is that I love to do a yarn woven basket with my 4th graders, pretty much every year. But after a while, even though the kids beg me to do this project, it gets a little redundant to say the least so this year I added a whole other element (humorous, engaging you might think!) to it, and they were totally successful.

I have the original lesson here. This year we turned our baskets in to Wacky HEADS/PEOPLE. We still focused on traditional vs. contemporary materials. They received a 'cup loom' a plastic cup cut into a odd number of 'spokes' or 'warp'. They wove in using a yarn color pattern 'weft'.

Add the top of the cup they could add a more contemporary material for hair or whatever they choose. Here are some of the outcomes:

 

These are just a few examples of the many that were extremely creative, humorous and well though out!

If you have any questions about the lesson, please let me know. This was done with 4th grade but could be adapted or modified for other grades

Kindergarten Primary Color Shape Mobile

This year we have some slight changes to our schedules. The unified art teachers are now teaching all the kindergarten classes, since we went to all full day kinder classes this year. I was a little nervous because with kindergarten you get so many different levels. I just want to be attentive towards their needs but also covering some of the principles and elements of design at a good pace.

I have no idea why I was so nervous, the students are doing excellent! We painted on the 3rd day. THATS right the THIRD DAY!!! NO spills, barely any messes and lots of smiles and successes.

I wanted to start out with basic shapes, drawing and cutting. We introduced outlining or tracing. We glued the shapes together. Talked about the primary colors. *** To add element of surprise and crayon resist you can have your students make designs in white crayon... they forget and when they paint the next day, it appears. You get a lot of ooooohhhh'sss and aaaaahhhh's, one class CLAPPED.

When the painting was completed we read mouse paint together and discussed primary and introduce how to make secondary colors.

 

These are some of my examples and one of some student work drying on the rack.. I will be posting the student work once hung in the hallway.

Student work drying

 

Can't wait to post the mobiles that are completed! They did such an amazing job!