Craft: Weaving Bookmarks

Craft: Weaving Bookmarks 

Description: 

This art lesson introduced the concept of straw-based weaving, as the straws we connected together (using tape) represented a loom. Throughout the lesson and prior to beginning our weaving, we were exposed to the Mexican heritage and how weaving was a major part of their culture. We began this project by taping our four straws together at one end, making sure that there was minimal space between each straw but also enough room to work the yarn through. Next, we each chose our own colors of year to work with and chose one of the colors to start weaving through the straws in a back-and-forth pattern; this is the part of weaving that we had to pay close attention to so that we would not miss a loop. As we were weaving it was also important that we keep the yarn tight and close together along the straws; however, I did learn that there is such thing as pulling the yarn to tight when weaving. We had to reach at least six inches of the weaving pattern before we could tie it off (on the far right of the top straw). Once we had tied our weaving string off, we then needed to thread four other yarn strands through each straw, tying the top strands together, and then we began to work the weaving pattern off of the straws in an upward motion towards the tied strands at the top of the bookmark. After getting the yarn removed from out straws, we tied all four strands together at the bottom of the bookmark to hold the middle portion of yarn together. 

Extension Activity: 

I really enjoyed how this activity integrated art into social studies by relating it to the Mexican heritage, so I would like to extend this lesson by deepening its correlation with other cultures. For example, I would provide several different weaving crafts that students could choose from. Maybe a student would like to crochet a scarf, another student uses a square loom to weave a coaster, etc. Each of these different types of weaving can help students enhance their fine motor skills, yet it is allowing them to work on something they enjoy doing. This activity can allow for students to look at different kinds of cultures that using weaving and expand beyond the Mexican heritage and into other groups of people around the world.