Months ago when we met in a large group to reflect on our fiber installation, the group created a list of next steps they wanted to take to complete the work. We have arrived at the final idea: attaching fiber people to the large web that hangs above our heads.
This presented us teachers with a challenge: How could we support this vision? What tools and materials might we present to the children that could help them successfully achieve this goal? How might we invite children to work with different peers, to assume the roles of both learner and teacher? How could this project integrate different concepts they are investigating, including themselves and the human form, fiber, shape, quantity, measurement and sequence? How might this project help children engage skills like explaining their process, tackling new challenges, sustaining focus, following steps, coordinating two hands to braid and tie knots, counting, and estimating?
And so, just as the children do....we played! In the end we created a process we hoped would bring both joy and challenge—a process the children could learn and teach one another. Below we have documented the beginning. We chose to break down this process into multiple stages. The first task: to create a human form from yarn. This took most children two days. To this form we will add hair, clothing, and faces!
Choosing a skin color, measuring the perimeter, counting thirty rotations...
“We need to choose our skin color.” Mark
“We’ve been using yarn.” AVIA
“Our yarn skin. We can find a color that matches our skin and use that.” AVERY
“We know that people come in every shade of brown, but we only have these shades here. Find the color that best matches you.” EMILY
“I can help. I can be a teacher.”
HELEN
“It just unraveled.” HELEN
“You pull and I’ll count. We’ll do it together.” Alex
“I’m wrapping, I’m wrapping.” Sophie
“I already taped mine. She just needed help with the tape.” AVERY
“Where’s the end?” AVIA
“Wait, let’s start over.” NICO
Tying a knot to keep it together, cutting the yarn, tying a knot to create the head...
“Make another knot. Then it will stay forever.” HELEN
“Another tight one? This is as tight as I can do. Two knots super tight?” CHARLOTTE
“I wonder what will happen. All these strings are starting to fall off.” AVIA
“I’ll help you both.” SOPHIE
“Pull it to the side. Like make an X.” MARK
“Do you need help, Nico?” AVIA
“Next step is to make the head. So you make one knot and then another knot where the neck is.” HELEN
“What do we do after the head?” CHARLOTTE
Two braided arms, two knots on each to secure them in place...
“Now how do I do it?” RUBY
“You put one side in and then put another side in the middle.” ALEX
“In between the mountain,
in between the mountain,
in between the mountain,
tighten!”
ELEANOR
“How do I do that? How do you braid?” HELEN
“I need help.” AVERY
“You put it here.” NICO
“So we get six lines. We put them in three groups of two.” NICO
“I counted three and three. One, two, three, four, five, six.” AVERY
“Now, braid!” AVIA
“We put each one in the middle.” NICO
“When you do it again, you learn more, so it’s faster.” VIOLET
“Our person is so happy to have two arms!” AVIA
A knot for the waist, and two more for each leg, then trimming the ends...
“We need a chunk for the body.” ELLIOTT
“My leg! My leg! My leg!” AVERY
“So we have to make sure they are the same amount.” ELEANOR
“Ooooo hello, hello! I’m Violet!” VIOLET
“We can do the legs like we did the arms.” VIOLET
“You just need to split that in half. She’s counting. I split mine, I didn’t need to count.” RUBY
“I don’t need numbers.” ELLIOTT
“Yeah, I’m going to estimate.” VIOLET
“Tah dah! Helen’s done!” AVERY
