These are without a doubt one of my favorite projects I've done with my first graders. Every winter I return to it and it's a hit. I mean, how cute are these animals wearing sweaters?
Like most of the art projects I do with first graders, this one is based off of a book:
Extra Yarn is a fantastic read about kindness and individuality. The story is fun and engaging and the excellent Jon Klassen brings it to life with his soft indie style. We use the above picture, the animals, as our inspiration.
First provide students with the template below:
Students will place a dot of glue on each 'G'. They will then carefully glue down strips of paper vertically to make their warp:
And then use an 'under-over'under' pattern to create their weft:
Continue weaving, pushing paper upwards to cover white spaces and gluing edges down until your animal's sweater is finished:
It's now time to make your animal! I like to have students mix different shades of browns and tans to make painted paper beforehand. It really gives these projects a handmade feel similar to Klassen's illustrations. Plus, what kid doesn't want to mix paints?
Tracers we used:
You can adapt this into a one day, mess free project by making the paper smaller and omitting the painting step like the dog above.
And there you have it! This project can be easily be adapted to use actual yarn if you happen to have some. Happy creating!
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