Community stitching

On both Monday and Wednesday this week, we spent most of the sessions stitching. On Monday we did a short brainstorm of what kinds of details the could put into their images. I copied compositions from the student's appliques onto the board and the students made suggestions on what would tell people more specifically that it was a rural/suburban/urban view. We reviewed some of the stitches, since the students haven't stitched in a few weeks: running, whipped running, satin, and couching stitches. 

Amanda outlines a sun before filling it in with satin stitch

 We compared the applique compositions to main idea and the embroidery stitches to details in a story. Cindy and I helped kids get started and solve any stitching snafus, but by now most of the children are confident in threading needles and tying knots.

Tyler works on windows and a bowl to feed the dog he'd included in the applique

 Suns, windows and doors, streams and ponds were popular additions. One girl even figured out how to make a squirrel! As always in embroidery, I stress that if you can draw it with a pencil, you can stitch with a needle and thread!! Most of the students approached it in this more freeform, direct way, stitching designs directly on the fabric without drawing it first, showing me how well they understood this drawing on paper/stitching on fabric comparison.

Erin's purple, whip-stitched windows really stand out on the yellow house

 Many students discovered that the whipped running stitch and the satin stitch made bolder images to show up on the patterned and brightly colored fabrics.

 I'm very excited by Daniella's, below. Her bush has tiny red berries in a sparse seed stitch she came up with on her own as well as satin stitch sun, stream, and a sidewalk in front of her house.

On Monday we administered the Science post-test, since we've completed our work on river systems and have moved on to the social studies portion. I'll post details on that later, but they did very well! On Wednesday we also prepared the children's timeline books to be hung in the hall- I had finished sewing their early rivers-of-the-world maps into bags and brought them in in which to place the accordion books.

There's  a short break for the Winter holidays, but we'll be back to finish up our last 6 days in January. When we come back we'll be doing some problem/solution writing based off the choices they made in their little community stitching, and then compile the stitcheries to be added to the collaborative project.