VISIT TO KILMORY PRIMARY SCHOOL
June 4, 2008
My visit to Kilmory Primary School was put into perspective when one of the young teachers pointed out that she remembered me coming into the school to teach weaving when she was a pupil there.
I worked with Karen Barbour who teaches P1 to P4 in a combined class.
STORYTELLING
We began with a reading of the story “Calum and Mairi Learn to Weave” with the beautiful illustrations by Alexa Rutherford.
SPINNING
I then showed the children some grey Shetland fleece and demonstrated how to twist the fleece between their fingers and “spin” a few inches of yarn to strengthen the fibres.
This was followed by a demonstration with a “spindle” made from driftwood weighted with a rock from the beach. I improvised tying the rock like a parcel to the driftwood with string to hold it firmly. See photo.
I then showed the relationship between the spindle and the spinning wheel, which of course misbehaved because I wanted to demonstrate in public, but the children understood the principle.
A few minutes later one of the boys had turned his water bottle into a stable horizontal spindle on his desk, producing and winding an impressive few inches of yarn.
One of the girls used a Pritt stick in one hand, fleece in the other to achieve a similar result.
WEAVING
The second part of the lesson was about setting up the looms, for which Karen had done some preparation.
The children had woven beautiful work with paper and each designed a coloured scarf after reading the book “Grandpa Bear’s Scarf”.
They had also been on a beach walk to observe the colours of the beach and sea and collected driftwood to hang their finished weavings.
The yarns were divided into “shore” and “sea” colours. The children knew warp from weft and as always the colour choices had that individual creative spark which is one of the joys of a weaving workshop at any age group.
I left them at lunch time prepared to carry on in the afternoon, getting the weaving sequence in the right order, managing their shuttles & butterflies and making sure the edges weren’t pulling in too tight.
The model for introducing weaving into curriculum work can be transferred effectively to an urban environment as my past experience shows.
Hopefully with hints from the website and news from other teachers, you’ll be inspired to use these ancient techniques to introduce modern learning concepts.