Watercolour Weaving

Here's a lesson I did as a casual (or 'sub'), when I was meant to be doing weaving with my Stage 3 (year 5/6) class. This was to be a precursor to them actually doing some wool weaving to create a little mat which would eventually be a bookmark.

This was the first lesson, and I had been told what to do, seen a sample from some other stage teachers...but couldn't find any coloured paper. As they say, necessity is the mother of invention - so we went one step further.

And just quietly, it turned out great :)

Here's a couple of snaps of the weaving half-way through. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to get a picture of the completed products, but that's ok: this gives you a general idea.

In this lesson, we had a chat about colour as well as weaving - it was a sort of two-step project. In terms of timing, I managed to get them well on their way in an hour lesson; some were nearly finished by the end of session!

Resources: watercolour paints, brushes, white A3 sheet of paper per person, scissors, ruler, pencil

I ran this lesson as sets of small activities with plenty of explicit instruction and visual demonstration:

1. Have each student divide their A3 page into halves and cut it carefully. This will ensure their weaving ends up (about) the same length as their loom (the white paper).
2. On one half, students are to experiment with their watercolours, and create either a 'warm' or 'cool' palette. Students were to have at least 3 different colours (about 5-6 max) as stripes on their page.
3. As that was drying, they could create their loom. Using the other sheet of paper, fold it in half and draw a 'border line' - one straight line, 2-3cm away from the end of their page. 
4. Students then draw a set of lines off their border line - they could be wavy or straight or zig-zaggy. Just make sure the lines aren't too close together or to the edge, otherwise they'll have trouble weaving!
5. Cut out the lines, then unfold the loom - the lines should be symmetrical on either side.
6.  On the dry watercolour page, students draw 1/1.5cm lines to create their 'threads' - these will be used to weave through the loom. 
7. As students then weave (up and down, alternating the pattern!), make sure they push the threads so that they're nice and close together. 
8. Finally, students need to glue the ends of their threads to their loom so it doesn't fall out.

...and voila! Your kids'll have their own watercolour woven mats.

Kind of chuffed with this one.
MissT