Activities with Textiles Many of these activities have the potential to be expanded and explored further by the children as their interests become clear. Some can be ongoing and added to over time. Working with and manipulating textiles can be challenging for small hands and children will need lots of support. Making sure scissors are sharp but safe and that resources are varied and accessible will help. Exploring and Making Choose unusual or interesting resources that inspire exploration... (Development Matters in the EYFS, Expressive Arts and Design, 22-36 months p. 43). Beginning to be interested in and describe the texture of things. (Development Matters in the EYFS, Expressive Arts and Design, 30-50 months p. 44). Spot the fabrics – ask the children to help you find lots of things that are made of fabric – curtains, cushions, clothes, rugs, play tents, aprons etc. Talk about how the textiles feel, whether they are plain or patterned, smooth, do they rustle, or are they waterproof? Textile collections – collect a wide variety of fabric scraps, ribbons, lace, wool, braids, raffia, string, embroidery thread, elastic etc. and store them in accessible baskets. Invite children to delve in and explore the textiles, talking about the feel, colour and pattern of them. Use lots of vocabulary – thick, thin, smooth, rough, patterned, stretchy. Have a go at sorting them – the children could decide on categories such as patterned and plain, reds and blues, rough and smooth etc. (Painter and Thirlwall). Pulling apart – show the children some squares of loose weave hessian. Let them explore the fabric, pulling at the weave to open it out in different places and in different directions. Can they see the threads that go up and down? These are the WARP threads. Can they see the ones that go over and under across the fabric? These are the WEFT threads. Lay the children’s squares of fabric onto a contrasting colour of card to show up the gaps their pulling at the weave has made (Painter and Thirlwall). Unravelling – have fun unravelling things. Offer the children lengths of string or wool. Show them how to untwist the lengths so that the ends become frayed. They might be able to unravel them completely into separate threads. They might like to stick their unravelled threads onto card and display them. How do they think the threads became so tightly wound together? Sheep’s wool – try to get hold of some sheep’s fleece, and have some balls of wool and a knitted jumper or scarf handy too. Give the children time to look at the sheep’s wool, feel it and talk about it. Where has it come from? How do the farmers get the fleece off the sheep? Look at books about sheep and wool. Invite the children to have a go at twisting the fleece so that it becomes like the wool in a ball of wool. How long does it take? (Don’t forget to wash hands after handling the fleece.) There might be someone in the local community who can spin and can show the children a spinning wheel. Read stories with spinning wheels in them – Sleeping Beauty or Rumpelstiltskin. Felting – this can be great fun as it involves fleece, water and bubbles. The children can make little felt balls or even pictures with their felt. Use the internet to find a good method for the children in your setting. Imaginative play – collect lots of fabric to support children’s imaginative play. Children might use floaty blue fabrics for sky or water, heavy dark blankets for grounds and hills and shimmery material for magical moments. Use cloaks and capes for children to wrap themselves up in. The children could tie lengths of fabric to a long pole to make a maypole, or just something that blows in the wind. This gives children the opportunity to explore textiles on a large scale and to think about how to use fabric in creative ways. Around the World – make a collection of textiles from India, Africa and South America. Look at the different designs with the children. Different methods will have been used to create the patterns, for example Indian block printing or African batik patterns. Look for repeats in the patterns, where does that shape appear again? Show them a cushion cover from India that has been embellished with mirrored beads or gold thread and twisted fabric. Textile Dolls – offer cardboard tubes and lots of bits of fabric for the children to make a doll or puppet with. They may want to use items like googly eyes and pipe cleaners too. Help them decide how they will make a head and arms and how they will ‘dress’ their doll. Weaving Be interested in the children’s creative processes and talk to them about what they mean to them. (Development Matters in the EYFS, Expressive Arts and Design, 22-36 months p. 45). Plastic mesh – cut easy-to-manage squares of plastic garden mesh. Have a wide collection of textiles to weave – fabric strips, wool, raffia, ribbons. Show the children how to weave the strips in and out of the mesh. Use lots of vocabulary – under, over, in, out, through. They might like to try weaving through the mesh on a bigger scale, curving it round to make cylinders. Weaving card – cut slits all around the edges of squares of stiff card. Have a selection of wool, ribbon, thread and lace available for the children to choose from. Show them how to tape one end of some wool to the back of their card, slot the wool through a slit and then find another slit to push it into on another side of the card, wrap it round and keep going. As they add more threads they can weave new pieces in and out of the existing ones. (Pre-school Art) Unusual weaving frames – try to get hold of some old bike wheels or tennis rackets as they make fun structures to weave on (Painter and Thirlwall). Use them outside with lots if lengths of fabric as well as natural objects – grasses, leaves, thin bendy twigs, feathers – anything the children want to have a go with. Nature weaving – take the children outside, or on a short walk, to look for small branches that have fallen from trees. They need to have some smaller branches coming off the main one to provide a sort of weaving frame. The children might like to collect things for weaving, such as long grasses or leaves. Offer the children a choice of things to weave onto and wrap around their branches. (Pre-school Art) A big weave – make a large wooden weaving frame that can be left out for children to add to. Talk with the children about how they will be working together to fill the weaving frame, and that they can come and add to it whenever they like. Make sure weaving fabrics, yarns and other textiles are accessible. The children might notice patterns in their weaving work and a design might evolve, perhaps to do with colour or texture or thickness of the woven materials. Really big weaving – some children may notice things that could be used as weaving frames – fence posts that have gaps between them or the bars or ladder on the climbing frame. Help them to explore their ideas, finding long things to weave in and out. If necessary, explain to them that these really big weaves are temporary, for example other children might want to use the climbing frame again soon! Embellishment – have a collection of things that can be added to any weaving to create interest – buttons, beads, pine cones, feathers, pebbles or shells with holes in them. Talk with the children about how these things could be attached – threaded on as they weave or tied on afterwards. Stitching, Sticking and Knotting Accept wholeheartedly young children’s creations and help them to see them as something unique and valuable. (Development Matters in the EYFS, Expressive Arts and Design, 22-36 months p. 43). Threading – create lots of opportunities for children to practice threading things – large beads and buttons or bits of stiff card with a hole punched through. Have fun outside on a large scale threading the hoops together onto rope or the bucket handles onto string. Packing tray sewing – build up a collection of Styrofoam packing trays from the supermarket. Invite the children to help you push some holes into the trays using a pencil. Show them how to do this with a ball of plasticine underneath for safety, making about ten holes per tray, well spaced apart. Ask the children to choose from some lengths of wool and help them wrap some masking tape round one end of the wool, like the end of a shoe lace. Now they can thread this end through one of the holes, taping the other end to the back of the tray. Support them as they ‘sew’ the wool in and out of the holes, adding new lengths and colours as they go (Pre-school Art). Binca –Offer the children a selection of embroidery threads or thin wool and squares of binca. Use child-friendly plastic needles and show the children how to thread the wool through the eye of the needle and sew their thread in and out of the binca. They might like to try sewing a straight line like a running stitch or they may want to sew in and out randomly. Appliqué – this is when you sew bits of fabric onto a larger piece to make a design. Children can have a go at doing appliqué without needing to sew. They could begin by making simple fabric collages, choosing textiles they like, cutting shapes using scissors and gluing them onto paper or card with P.V.A. glue. Then they might like to make a picture, cutting shapes of fabric and gluing them onto a larger piece of material, or shaped card. Talk with them about their picture before they start – helping them to find inspiration, a toy, a bunch of flowers, an image in a book. Support them as they select their textiles. It can be helpful for each child to have a small pot in which to keep their fabric and the shapes they cut. (Painter and Thirlwall) Knots and twists – some children will love to fiddle with lengths of yarn or fabric, making twists and knots almost by accident. Create opportunities for this interest to be explored. Have lots of shoe laces, ribbon, wool etc available and show the children how to tie a simple knot. They may want to have a go at plaiting too. Tie strips of fabric close together on a length of wood and hang it securely at an accessible height. Invite the children to tie knots in the fabric, twist it together or try plaiting it. Have balls of string outside for them to wrap around things, over and under and create knots and twists that way. Colour and Pattern Make suggestions and ask questions to extend children’s ideas of what is possible, for example, “I wonder what would happen if...” (Development Matters in the EYFS, Expressive Arts and Design, 22-36 months p. 43). Block printing onto fabric – tape a large piece of white fabric to a big table. Have a selection of things to block print with – wooden bricks, cotton reels, biscuit cutters. The children can choose some paint colours. Show them how to put the paint in a tray and roller it out, then either dip or roller their block and press it down onto the fabric. Explore patterns with them as they work together on one big piece of fabric. Fabric pens – these are a simple way for children to add their own pattern and colour to textiles. Show them some T shirts that have designs on them. Talk about the colours and shapes in the designs. Offer the children inspiration for a design of their own, look at each other’s clothes, the pattern in a curtain, objects that are their favourite colour. Help each child to tape a square of white fabric to the table so it doesn’t move around and invite them to make their own designs using the fabric pens. Natural Dye – make some dye using natural ingredients – tea, onion skins, beetroot and blackberries all make good dyes. Talk with the children about what colour dyes they think these things will make. The children may want to observe the process of making the dye. Wear rubber gloves. Use 2-3 cups of plant material to 3 pints of water and place in a large pan. Heat to almost boiling, stirring until the colour appears. Leave to cool and then strain the plant material out so you are left with coloured water. Now you can use the dye. Invite the children to take a strip of white fabric. Talk about what colour it is now, and what colour they think it will be when it has been dipped in the dye. Dip the fabric into the dye and wring it out. Have a washing line nearby so the children can peg the fabric out to dry (Painter and Thirlwall). Tie Dye – use the same method as above, but before they dip the fabric help the children to bind sections of it with elastic bands very tightly. Why do they think this is important? When they have dipped the fabric and let it dry a bit they can take the elastic bands off. Talk with them about what has happened. Quilts – look at a quilt with the children. Look at the patches that have been sewn together. Look at the pattern made by the patches. What are quilts used for? How do they make you feel? Explain to the children that many years ago women would sew quilts out of old clothes and these patches would tell the story of their family’s lives and capture their memories. They would make friendship quilts to give as gifts when someone moved away or got married. Invite the children to make their own patchwork patterns laying out pieces of fabric onto card and gluing them down. The children might like to hear some stories about quilts – The Quilt Story by Tony Johnston, or The Patchwork Quilt by Valerie Flournoy. References Art and Design Resource File, Jill Painter and John Thirlwall, LCP, Warwickshire, 2006 Preschool Art, Mary Ann Kohl, Brilliant Publications, 1999 Art Attack, Louise Park, Ashton Scholastic, 1987 www.wonderpolis.org www.freedigphoto – ‘Paul’, leaf picture
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