3rd Grade - Diné Loom Weaving
In third grade (or 7- 10 year olds) We practice loom weaving. Blick has these fancy cardboard looms but you can use any piece of sturdy cardboard of course, it just takes a lot more prep and it's good to teach kids about alternatives to using fancy things. I also like to use really thick yarn. Little hands have an easier time building up the layers for weaving. First we learn about the legend of Spider Woman. Then we begin making our warp strings to weave on. Then we cut and practice weaving colors and patterns. To make a checkerboard pattern on your loom, weave alternate 6 inch singles and repeat one color in the center of the pattern, alternating the order of vertical stripes. We use 6 of each color to do this.
