Irresistible Ideas for play based learning

Over the last couple of weeks the children have worked so enthusiastically on their flags for our garden bunting that it only seemed right they should be involved in the final process of sewing the flags up!

It wasn’t rocket science, we just needed them to sew straight lines in order to create a pocket on each flag through which we could run the cord to hang them up.

To the delight of the children, Donna brought in her sewing machine and invited them to have a go.

Oh wow the boys thought this was FANTASTIC!

After all anything with a motor was going to attract these boys to play!

They were fascinated with the whole sewing process, from winding the bobbin, to threading the cotton and pushing the foot peddle to make the needle run up and down.

Under instruction they managed incredibly well to direct the fabric in a straight line through the machine.

We saw some great team work in the process. One child at a time directed the fabric while two others took turns in raising and lowering the foot lever on the machine while another controlled the reverse button and a fifth child cut the threads, all the while agreeing that Donna should be in control of the foot pedal … phew!

Once the sewing was all done it was time for the children to thread the bunting onto the cord …

then Jarvis’s wonderful dad’s Stephen, strung it up in the playground.

We were so impressed with the end result …

as this project had held the children’s interest for over two weeks!

Perhaps this was due to the assorted art techniques they learned along the way.

It is another wonderful group project produced by our children to jazz up our outdoor area ….

and we think their garden bunting looks irresistible!

Following on from the wax resist batik style decorating of the bunting, we wanted to try something a little bit different … Actually a lot different!

Some children asked if they could make flags the same shape as the ones Donna made, so we purchased some brightly coloured 100% cotton fabric and cut it up into triangles.

So far the children have been adding colour to their flags. This time we thought we’d let them try removing the colour from the flags.

We thought it would be a great scientific experiment as well as a new art experience for the children to bleach the colours out of the fabric as long as we were very careful and put a few safety precautions in place.

So we diluted the bleach a little but as it continued to rain we were forced to do this inside, so we sat in front of the door for ventilation.

We gave the children clothing protection, safety goggles and masks to wear.

Hee hee hee. They LOVED it!

Instead of brushes they used cotton buds to apply the bleach.

They had a ball and were endlessly fascinated by the results. We found if they hung their flags near the heater to dry out, the results were almost instantaneous!

In a similar vein we tried some tie dyeing.

The children scrunched up the material …

and we helped them stretch elastic bands around it very tightly …

before dunking it into the bleach.

For this we gave them tongs as a further safety precaution.

Oh WOW! So COOL!

Tomorrow we’ll show you how the chidren sewed their flags up on the sewing machine.

That’s right … the children!

The bunting making continues! We’ve decorated flags with eye droppers and drawings. Now onto some more!

This time we thought a ‘batik’ style of application would be a new and exciting experience for the children to have a go at, after all there is fire involved!

We lashed out and gave the children a lit candle (one child at a time!) …

so they could drip the wax onto the calico.

Ooo-arrr! The power of fire instantly drew a crowd!

If you are unsure of using a naked flame with children, you can check out how Teacher Tom and the children of Woodland Park tried a different style of ‘batik ‘ art.

Next they painted the fabric dye over the top …

and were interested to see …

how the wax resisted the coloured water just as it did with their grated wax crayon resist art and crayon resist eggs.

The children really enjoyed this new type of art experience!

Naturally our plan was to iron the wax off but the children started picking it off with their fingers so we figured …

why not, after all it’s a great fine motor exercise!

These dyed flags, like our others designs are looking really beautiful.

But for our next design the children will attempt to reverse the dyeing process!