This week C is VIP in her kindergarten class, and she has invited me to be her guest! I feel so honored! The guest is expected to provide some entertainment, so I thought I would talk about something dear to my heart that kids that age might not have thought about. We are going to talk about where clothes come from. We will be starting with a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, and deciding they are made from cotton.
I have cotton bolls to give to each one, so they can pull them apart, look at the fibers and feel the seeds.
I have pictures of a cotton field, a cotton gin, spinning machines, and I have my spindle with some wool roving. (I have been learning spinning such a short time that I do not think I can spin cotton yet... that takes a special skill.)
At least this time my wool thread is thread, and not a bulky weight yarn.
Then we will talk about what to do with threads: weaving and knitting. These are the samples I worked up, hopefully they will be able to see the structure.
Then I have pictures of sheep and wool, kids spinning and carding, flax fields for linen, the silk worm life cycle, and pictures of man-made fibers. To finish off I made tassels of cotton, silk, wool and linen to feel. They are amazingly ugly, but they do give a chance tell the difference between the different fibers.
All this in the 15 minutes I have been allotted! LOL
DH thinks the boys will be bored, so I included pictures of the machines and inventions that make our clothing possible.
I found out about this day in November, and have been planning what to say ever since then. I am so excited about it that I had trouble falling asleep last night! I was going to get some raw fleece, and some flax twists, and some silk cocoons... and make some polyester right there in the class until I found out about the time limit.
I will have my knitting along, and I have the supplies for a weaving project that I think kindergarten kids could do, but I will only bring it up if invited.
The whole subject is so interesting, how could anyone stop after only 15 minutes! But I guess learning to read is important too... can't take time away from that.
My dear friends from knitting group are helping me out with my chemo cap project. The green cap with the pansy button (isn't that darling!) was knit and finished by my friend Carol. I knit the other green one, but haven't embellished it yet. I knit the blue one as well, but Char knit the flower, attached it, and wove in all the ends.
Thank you friends!
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