Hello and welcome back to Blooming Curious.
It's back to school for the last term.
Yes, term four for teachers here in Australia.
Now, I know that if you're in your last term, you're taking off
. Every day, marching your way to that very last day of school.
But term four has always been my favourite term.
Not because it's the last term, but because that's the term my students
usually immerse themselves in textiles.
And some of you might or might not know that I love textiles.
Since I was a child my favorite memories are hand embroidering or knitting with
my grandma and my favorite holidays were spent with my grandma just sitting with
her doing needle craft and to this day I sew some of my own clothes and I also love
a bit of visible mending which is this Japanese craft where you repair clothes.
But you actually make that repair an artwork.
And this is how I fixed my favorite pair of GAP jeans when
they were ripped, because I just don't do the ripped jeans look.
It's just not me.
So you might be saying, well, how do you fit that into your curriculum?
Well, let me tell you how I build handicrafts and textiles into my lessons
and why you should be doing this.
In term four, In my year two class, I always teach chemical sciences.
Now you're going to say, oh, what's chemical sciences
have to do with textiles?
Well, that's where, in chemical sciences, we're teaching how materials change.
We're doing lots of cooking so that children can observe how they mix
ingredients together and how certain ingredients mix and don't mix, how
heat changes a certain products and ingredients like butter, which causes
materials to change their shape and their properties going from a solid to a liquid.
But we also look at the characteristics of materials.
So what I do is I bring in different materials and children experiment
with which fabric is best for making a kite, for example.
What characteristics should the material they choose for making this kite have?
So they look for materials that are light and strong.
Or we look at which materials would be the best suited for wearing
on a rainy or wet weather day.
So then we take pieces of fabric and we experiment with their
waterproofness, is that even a word?
And I'm teaching the science curriculum with hands on experiences to look at the
characteristics of different materials.
And if you've been listening to the previous two episodes, you would have
heard that hands on learning is one of the best ways to engage students.
These type of learning experiences not only meet the curriculum
outcomes, but they are also because of their hands on nature, highly
engaging and fun for students.
So getting back to the whole sewing thing, the textile projects we do
link to science, where we're learning about the properties of materials.
But it's also part of our design and technologies curriculum.
So you can see it fits very naturally into our outcomes.
The first thing you need to do is and I know that as early
childhood and elementary teachers, you fill your cupboards with all
sorts of stuff and materials.
So if you haven't, you have to ask the community, any parents or grandparents
that are getting rid of balls of wool or pieces of fabric or perhaps old t
shirts and shirts that have been stained or a rip on old tablecloth and curtains.
Any piece of textile is useful in a classroom, especially when
it comes to textile projects.
Now I usually bring out my tub of scrap materials, which is usually
overflowing from donations, and I show students examples of what
they can make with textiles.
I have samples of things that I've made and I have photographs of things
that previous students have made and I show them pictures online of
things they might consider making.
I also have some fabulous craft books that I use.
I'll link some of them in the show notes for you so you can purchase those through
my Amazon affiliate link if you so wish.
When it comes to the crafting though, every student
chooses what they want to do.
We do not do the 25 yellow ducks.
in Mrs.
Cottino's classrooms.
We are not all doing the same thing.
Some choose to sew, and some make stuffed animals or creatures of their own design.
Some of them choose to do French knitting and they create jar
covers for their pencils in their bedrooms or they do beanies.
Some like to make fashion items like bags others prefer to use weaving
techniques to make wall hangings, which we always attach to, you know,
I always love to bring nature in.
So we usually attach it to some piece of some stick or other.
And some create pictures by embroidering onto fabric.
And some make sock puppets using old socks to create their own characters.
Now, not only is this hands on project.
terribly engaging and enjoyable.
Students are learning other skills too, like patience, things like focus and
concentration, like resilience, when it all goes wrong, and everything always
does go wrong, and the wool knots, or they miss a few stitches, and they have
to start again, or make some repairs.
And I remember how keen my students were to get to school in the mornings,
to sit with their French knitting, or their sewing, before our lessons started.
It was such a beautiful, calm way to start the day.
And every year I kind of thought, Oh, I have to let them do these projects
throughout the year because it's such a beautiful way to start the year, but then,
of course, other things take over and you're having to do your morning reading
or other stuff that you have to do in the mornings, but I promise you
if you can get into and see how kids love to do this, it is just
such a fabulous start to every day.
Now because this project is all about design and technology, they of course
first have to plan what they're going to make and what they're going to need to
make it, and they have to draw a picture of what their design would look like.
I have a free design planning template for you to download and you can use
this planning sheet for your design and technology lessons, which I'll
link for you in the show notes.
Now once they've completed this design, which usually takes them
almost a whole term, about six or seven weeks of their design craft.
Some students actually make more than one thing depending on how
long it takes them to finish.
And they then take a photograph of this completed project and they then
glue a picture of this of their project onto their planning sheet, and then
they fill out a reflection of how well their project worked, what changes they
needed to make, and if the materials they chose worked well for their design.
And of course, this reflection is the crux of the learning about
materials and their intended function.
Now, of course, being me, I have to integrate and ensure the children really
understand how they can apply this one project across other curriculum areas so
that it becomes a holistic experience.
And of course, this is the perfect opportunity to integrate English
language arts and digital technology.
So once they've completed this project, They then use a digital
program like Picolage to create a procedural text poster.
They use their photograph and they incorporate it into a poster of their
own design and they type up their procedure, which will teach others
exactly how to make the project, whether it was how to make a sling
bag or how to make a sock puppet.
And of course, I would have previously taught them how to write a procedural
text in our English writing lessons using my favorite strategy, which
is Pi Corbett's talk for writing.
I'll link the book that I used in the show notes for you as
well if you want to get it there.
Now what they do is they transfer that knowledge of how to write that procedural
text which they've practiced before and they transfer it to this project.
I also had explicitly taught them how to use Picolage, which is a digital
program to create their digital poster.
So once again they use that training and that knowledge to apply it to create.
a digital poster.
So we're integrating our digital technologies into just this one
thing of making a textile project.
We're creating lessons that meet multiple curriculum outcomes, now creating lessons
that meet multiple curriculum outcomes, not only makes learning more meaningful
for our students and allows them to make those cross curricular connections,
but it also helps us tick off multiple
outcomes so that we don't need to scramble around to assess other stuff in a single
lesson that has no connection for our students to anything they're learning.
If you listen to my previous two episodes, you will see that the data is out on
the types of strategies that engage students best, and overwhelmingly,
hands on learning is one of the best strategies to engage students.
A textile project like this one I've been describing is a fantastic example
of how intentional hands on learning experiences engage students students
and help them make connections to real life experiences because their
project has a real world application, they're more likely to use it in their
lives and also it's relevant to them.
It wasn't some project that they would never use again, or that
their mothers were just going to chuck in the bin afterwards, because
it's yet another piece of paper.
I cannot tell you how many students, after spending the year with me, creating
projects like this, continued on to create projects of their own at home.
In fact, last year, at our year 6 graduation night, We always have
a slot where some of the year six students report back and reflect
back on their time in primary school.
And when it came to reflecting back on their time in year two with me,
this is the project they remembered with such fondness it actually caused
me to burst into tears and I was a total embarrassing mess after that.
These experiences really make a positive difference to children
and they're learning stuff.
They're learning how to complete projects, how to plan, how to have
persistence, how to have tenacity to finish something, not to mention when
you're integrating it with English or digital technologies or mathematics
or anything else, it makes it so much
more real for them.
And if you follow me on Instagram, and I have to say I'm not very good
at social media, but I am trying to be more active so that more people find
Blooming Curious and listen to the podcast, you would have seen that I put
on a reel where I said the Term 4 is the perfect time to try new strategies.
It's also the perfect time to include hands on experiences where children can
make Christmas gifts for family members.
And in my class, we always sew, using fabric and a needle and thread, a bell
decoration for their Christmas tree.
And this of course is in addition to their own textile project, and it's
not clay so it won't get broken and I know it's something that parents will
treasure forever because I still have my children's Christmas decorations they made
at school that I put up on our tree every single year and it's such a beautiful
reminder of their life experiences.
But here's the thing, you don't just make the decoration and then you
scramble to complete assessments to meet the outcomes in other learning areas.
You use this as your hands on experience to meet outcomes in
English, in design and technologies, in digital technologies, and in art.
So make sure that you get the link in the show notes to download that
planning sheet, which you can use for any hands on project because
it's the whole skill of the planning process of creating or thinking
about something and then making it.
So this time of year, heading towards Christmas and the holidays is hectic.
You'll probably be finishing off your assessments and you're writing reports.
So a hands on project like I've just described is the perfect, low
stress, fun way to end the year.
And by the way, I know that some of you are probably saying, how am
I going to teach kids to do this?
They don't know how to use a needle and thread or how to do French knitting.
In fact, I don't know either.
Well here's my top tip.
You get all the students together in a small group that want to
do the same or similar project.
Let's take French knitting for example.
I use toilet rolls and pop sticks to create French knitting spools.
I then started them off.
You just go to YouTube and I drew an arrow on the roll so they know which
direction to go in and once you've explicitly taught them off they go and
you will then find that some kids are really good at it and they get it really
quickly, others struggle and that's why this is such a good project because it
teaches them persistence and at the end they have something to show for their
persistence which makes them really proud.
Now you get those that really get and I'm just nailing it.
And you get them to help those that need more help.
Or you find a YouTube video that shows them step by step process
that those kids can follow.
But I have found the best way to do it is just to do it hands on.
And as an early childhood educator
learning these new types of skills together with your children also shows
your children that you're learning.
It shows how you're curious and you're open to new experiences.
So if you can't do this or you don't know how to do this, find
a person on your staff that does know how, get them to teach you,
or just spend a night on YouTube.
You're not making something that's going to go on a catwalk.
You're simply making something that you can do with young children that
know nothing and in fact get a grandparent in to come and help you.
Now when you've got a group working on their own this French knitting
group and they're helping each other.
That frees you up to help another group, perhaps the students that are creating
a stuffed animal or stuffed creature.
Now you show them how to draw out their pattern using newspaper or some
brown paper or some butcher paper and you teach them how to do that and how
to cut their pattern out and so on.
I really hope that you will take these last weeks as we head to the Christmas
holidays to try these hands on strategies.
It's the perfect time to experiment for next year and a wonderful way
for you to enjoy these last few weeks with your students and make
some beautiful memories together.
I hope this episode has inspired you to have a go at planning hands on
experiences, that meet multiple outcomes.
And if you found anything I've said today interesting or useful, could
you please do me a massive favor?
Click that share button and get the link and send it to someone that you
think needs a bit of inspiration today.
Sharing this episode and the show with others is the only way this podcast can
grow and get more people listening to it.
So please share it.
Now, don't forget to click the link to download your planning sheet
that you can use with your students.
And also make sure you subscribe to my newsletter so that you get
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That's going to be really important because I've decided to take a summer
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So until next week, take care of yourselves, have a go at
something, make fabulous memories, and stay blooming curious.