embroidery

I enjoy sewing and embroidering in my free time, and I've found that the children love it, too.  I had everything to get started at home, but maybe you don't, so I thought I would share a little link to encourage other teachers/parents/people to try it out.

I only offered sewing as a choice a few times this year, and I hope that, in the future, I offer it more.  The first few times that children sew, they really explore it: touching the needle, making long long lines of thread, and using as many colors as they can.  I really enjoy letting kids explore a new material, but I'm less of an expert at helping them to become experts.  Some children might really like to use this tool to express their understanding or create something that they treasure.  I always think back to how children in Reggio use clay as a language, and it blows me away.  But that clay work starts as free exploration, and when children become experts at using the tool as a language, they are able to use that tool to communicate.  Perhaps that is possible with sewing.

Maybe the tips on this blog, maya*made, will be helpful for those just starting out sewing.  I've pulled a few good tips from it, too.  And I'm trying to fashion some homemade embroidery hoops out of cardboard instead of buying more wooden ones...I'll try to share that later.

Organization and Natural Materials

I perfer to use natural items in the classroom rather than than plastic - glass jars, thrifted baskets, wooden boxes - for storage and display of materials. Many people worry about using glass with children, but it is much more appealing to the eye, and children will learn that it is a delicate material and should be used with care. There are a few broken jars every year, but I imagine that happens at home as well.

I have been fantasizing about how I will change my classroom for this September. I think about how to makeng it more comforting, more homey, and more appealing to the children. The conclusions I come to usually end up being ideas that require a lot of my time and effort, but certain things are worth it.

I am always looking for baskets to put books in in different areas of the classroom, but I never come across suitable ones. I really love the idea of making these fabric boxes.


There is a lovely tutorial here. I had bookmarked it to make some for our apartment (which I hopefully will), but these will work really well for classroom organizing. It will take a few evenings to make a few boxes, but I think I'll be glad I made them.

Documentation and Parents

It is time for parent-teacher conferences this week. I'm working hard to put together some documentation about our current sewing project -- the kids have wonderful ideas and are all working hard to make something to bring home and keep. That seems to be the theme when I ask the kids about their projects at least!




I hope that the parents take the time to look at the photos and words that I'm presenting. Most bulletin boards are one art project that every child in the class has done with each piece clearly labelled with the artist's name. Is it that important to label with names? Does everyone have to do it? I think that is something that is done for parents. In my opinion, the children bring home artwork everyday, so each parent knows their child is producing artwork, and what it looks like. Documentation (or bulletin boards) are about our classroom community and what is happening. I think it is a true releflection of what is going on, rather than twenty coffee filter butterflies.

But are the parents looking at it? I'll share this round of documentation with you later this week, and I may have an answer to that question as well!

The Running Stitch

Right now, each child is preparing to make their own sewing project. I mentioned before that we were learning the running stitch. Everyone is doing quite well! I captured one girl in particular doing some practice sewing.



Their plans are going smoothly, and tomorrow, they will choose their fabrics; then Friday, they will make their patterns. They are all very excited about it...we do have a lot of work to do, though!

*The photo above is from my class in Seattle last year, when we were sewing on burlap.