Egg Dye Yarn??

So, my school is right nearby to a few grocery stores, and we often get random post-holiday donations.  Candy Hearts, Christmas decorations, and most recently, piles of peeps, and egg dye.  Now, the art teacher in me fought with myself.  I know that many of those egg kits come with some cool stuff, but I am working hard not to take on things that I cannot store well in the new art room.  So, I googled egg dye and found the directions to dye yarn in a crock pot with it.  Needless to say, I went down and loaded up.  Today, my 1st graders finished up with a little time to spare, so I had them rip into all of the boxes and rescue the dye packs for me.  WOW- can my kiddos tear their way through boxes.  I simply had them empty the contents into a tote tray for me, and toss the boxes.  At the end of art, I let them choose from the stickers, rub ons, and other stuff.  Cheap labor or what?  My goal is next year to dye the yarn with my 4th graders, and then do their weaving project.  That is, if I can remember where the egg dye is next year.  HAHA.

Tapestries and Coil Pots

Always be careful with student images-in this case, the one face you see is used with permission

A promising coil pot practice

I LOVE my new art room- I have a reading corner for the "littles" with an alphabet mat- sometimes, I spell things out, but mostly, it's just our meeting spot.  I am teaching the 4th graders to weave, and we are weaving tapestries.  I typically teach them how, give them some time to do it, and those who finish are taught to remove it from the loom, and sew it into purses, bags, wallets, etc.  Basically, little pouches.  It gives us a chance to discuss decorative and functional in a very hands on way.  Now, 4th graders can get restless, so I tell them that they can sit where they want, with whomever they choose, as long as they are weaving, and reasonable quiet.  Here are a bunch on the letters, weaving away.   I am also teaching my 2nd graders to make coil pots, and since a couple of classes were a bit ahead, we took the time to practice with modeling clay first- not something I always do, but hopefully, the results will be worth the practice time.  We will make press pots, inside terra-cotta flower pots.  Since I have some very bright students, one way that I plan to differentiate is to teach lids to those who are a bit faster to catch on to the coil pot process.