Large Group Weaving on a Garden Fence

Thank you to all who voted for my blog in the AOE Blog of the Year contest. While I did not win, I am still happy to have been a finalist. Congrats to all of the bloggers in the contest!

Today I am going to show you a super fun project that my students worked on this week.

This summer we planted a garden. My husband diligently set up a plastic fence to keep out the rabbits. We watered it and were proud of ourselves. Within a couple weeks, rabbits had bit large holes through the fence and eaten all of our sprouts and seeds. Total bummer! Even though we replaced the plastic fence with a wire one and replanted the seeds, it was too late. The only thing we got this summer from our garden were some mini pumpkins. After removing the plastic fence and rolling it up, I got the idea to save it and use it for a large weaving project!

To prepare for this project, I cut up long strips of fabric and cut off manageable lengths of ribbon. I had donated pieces of fabric in my stash and I bought a HUGE box of ribbon for very cheap from NAEIR (free membership for teachers, super low prices, but stock rotates daily).

I cut the fence into 4 large pieces and I still have enough leftover to do this project again. My first graders started the group weaving and then other kids worked on it throughout the week when they had extra time.

The directions I gave were to tie the strip on the edges, weave through the slots and then tie the ends again. After the weaving was done through each of the slots, I told them to go back in and slide over some of the fabric and fill in gaps wherever they could see through. They could also tie on little bows or hang pieces from the fencing.