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| Ta-Da! A gr.4 Valentine pillow made from Burton sample fabric. |
Sometimes, when it's coming up on a vacation, and the kids are getting a wee loopy, it is a really bad idea to use materials that require a great deal of personal control.
It
is the right time to find a material that, by its very properties, settles them. And, well, it's pretty hard to get wild when sewing.
Sewing with kids, which I look
forward to doing every year, is awesome for many reasons, not the least of which is that all the kids relax noticeably. Social interactions improve as kids help one another, and everyone is learning a life skill, because even in our our commoditized world, no one should have to throw out a shirt because it lost a button.
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| Rockin neon and black fabric. |
The main hang ups kids have about sewing are 1. That they will hurt themselves with the needle (which will happen, no biggie), and 2. That sewing is for girls.
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| Dudes who sew. |
Well, let me tell you that when we were done, and I asked who wanted to take a picture with their work, this was the first group who came running. They are SO. PROUD. Everyone in the class was proud.
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| The Burton fabric donation! |
This fall, our local snowboarding company Burton donated a bunch of awesome fabric samples to our classroom here at EES. What I love about these fabrics, and using them for heart pillows, is that they are surprising and fun in their range of colors and textures. No plain pink and red lacy Valentines here.
Students learned a smidge of pattern-making, a basic running stitch, how to hide your seams, a whipstitch, tufting, and tying lots and lots of knots. Most importantly, how to do it "all by yoursnelf," as my toddler would say.
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| Running stitch |
Students in grade 4 will soon be doing a unit on colonial times, in which they will be sewing in their homerooms, so they are well prepared for that.
And frankly, I am a little bit jealous! It's been a long time since I have had the chance to hang out with twenty friends and sew.
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| Photobombed at right by the 5th graders making heart hands. (They just like to hang out in the art room all.the.time.) |
Sewing pillows makes it really inviting to just, well, rest. At one point I turned around to see this. He stayed exactly like this for at least another minute or two:
Which bears the question: WHY DON'T WE HAVE NAPTIME IN OUR SCHEDULES?
Just sayin'.
Moving on, here are some of the beauties they created.
So much pillowy love, coming your way, EES families!
With so much love to you this Valentine's Day,
♥ fourth graders
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