Warm and Cool Color Weaving

Hi first grade friends and artists... here is a new lesson for you to try at home.  It is a bit more involved than our previous at-home lessons, so we are going to break it up into two weeks or two "art days".  First, here is my FINISHED product:

As you may have noticed, there is a theme of warm vs. cool colors here.  For a little review, check out this color song by Creativity Express.  After your review, you will need just a few things: 2 sheets of paper (two of the same size) and something to color them with, whether paint, markers, or crayons. I used markers here.

Sort your coloring tools into two groups, the warms and the cools.  Then decide on a design for each of your pieces of paper.  Keep in mind that these pictures will later be cut up, so if you decide to draw something realistic, it will end up looking pretty unrecognizable in the end.  Here are mine.....

One of these papers will become your LOOM, and one will become the strips that you will weave into the loom.  I made my warm color paper into strips, about one inch wide, and I cut them with my paper turned the "landscape" way, so my strips were cut from the short side, not the long side, if that makes sense. I would recommend drawing the lines for the strips on the back of your paper, before cutting them.  If you have a ruler, you should measure them, to be sure.

Once your strips are cut, you are ready to make your loom.  A loom is a tool that is used to create a weaving.  A loom can create things like rugs and tapestries, as well.  You will be making a paper weaving, and your loom will become a part of your weaving, but many looms can be reused.  

Here's what I did to create the loom:

Fold your paper in half the hamburger way. Begin cutting from the folded side up toward the open top.  Stop short of the top of the paper, so that the paper doesn't fall apart.  (skip ahead to the next photos if this is confusing, OR check out this video clip for further details on how to make a paper loom.

When you open your paper back up, you should have nice, long cuts in the paper, but all sides should be in-tact.

The next step is to do the weaving, itself.  The process is "over, under, over, under...", meaning take the strip of paper and put it over the loom, then under the loom, then over, then under, creating a pattern.  The next strip goes UNDER then over, and so on.  Here's a little visual for ya...

I hope you enjoyed this lesson, learned something, and wound up with a really cool art project to hang up in your home.  I look forward to seeing your work soon!