Teacher Recommended Resources - Fabric

These extensions are brought to you by other teachers who have used this unit. They have not been evaluated by The Einstein Project. Rev. 3/20/08

FOSSWEB.com – works great for extending the lessons in the computer lab!

Fabric Online:  http://library.thinkquest.org/C004179/
Fabric Online gives users a lowdown on everything about fabrics, from the origins of different textiles to fashion changes and what each colour we wear means.

Make a quilt
- Made a quilt about the four seasons
- Took dyed squares and had a parent sew them together into a class quilt

Sewed:  tooth pockets/ bags
- a pocket of felt at Christmas time and put coupons in for jobs to do for our parents
-     Christmas socks/stockings

Reading Rainbow series: The Patchwork Quilt

In the computer lab we made a quilt and learned the letter Qq
- used Kid Pix Studio – the square tool

Made (wove) potholders and donated them to Golden House

Had two moms come in and do fabric printing (Batik) – students sewed their squares to make small pillows & used some of the squares to make a quilt

Made a pillow from the muslin or a larger piece of fabric, folding it in half and sewing the edges.  They stuffed their pillows with kleenex or napkins

Turned their cloth into butterflies using clothes pins

Have a spinner/weaver come to class and show how to make yarn or weave
- Mary Sue Fenner – local spinner (teacher at NWTC)

Books:  The Emperor’s New Clothes
The Principal’s New Clothes
Joseph Had a Little Overcoat – Simms Tabacksites
Farmer Brown Shears His Sheep – Teri Sloat
Wool – Edwards & Harris
Charlie Needs a Cloak – Tomi dePaola
A New Coat for Anna
A Symphony for the Sheep – C. M. Millen
Mary Wore Her Red Dress
  Corduroy
  Pelle’s New Suit
  A Book for Anna
The Quilt Story
     Something from Nothing
    The Clothesline
  The Goat in the Rug  - good for diversity
  The Quilt Maker’s Gift by Jeff Brumbeau
  Coat of Many Colors and tape of song by Dolly Parton

Tie-dyed t-shirts

Tied the “paper” experience with the “cloth/fabric” experience with dyes.  Used coffee filters and compared color intensity to fabric

Made Christmas fabric ornaments

Used donated fabric to create a picture of themselves
-find the fabric type that most matches their own

Made paper dolls - making real clothes from fabric

Nature Center spoke on bird’s nests – using fabric & string

Fabric egg shapes with cut felt strips = Easter connection

Investigated fabric just before St. Patrick’s Day
- used green fabrics to make a coat for a leprechaun
- 
Made up a song to “Sailing, Sailing, Over the Ocean Blue”
 -see sheet

Write a cinquain poem about dyed fabric

Sew on buttons

Made a graph on the pockets we were wearing

Game from TRIBES activity (see sheet)

Have a button day

Graphs on how many pockets we are wearing

Give each student a T-shirt outline and have them design their own patterned shirt

Collage boards work great

Used the pocket they made for pocket show & tell

Read The Rag Coat by Lauren Mills and made coats [fabric collage] with each group

Have someone come in and knit and read No Roses for Harry

Used Charlie Needs a Cloak as a focus throughout the unit

Framed our tie-dyed fabric with a black die cut paper frame

Went to Heritage Hill Farm for sheep shearing demo in the spring – videotaped it for future use