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Plan Number: 040
Title/Lesson/Theme: African textile designs are created by weaving or stamping.
Designed by: Lori Powell
Grade level/Discipline: Kindergarten/Art
Estimated Time: Four 20-50 minute lessons
Objectives (what will be assessed?):
Students will understand that African peoples create textile designs by weaving colored yarn and by using dye to stamp cloth with designs.
Students will understand and appreciate that African textiles are often created especially for particular celebrations.
Description/Background:
These lessons are part of a unit on fabrics covering types of cloth, materials that are used to create cloth, methods of creating cloth, spinning, weaving, unweaving, dying, and sewing. We will examine different types of cloth, making comparisons and grouping fabrics that are alike; create fabric collages; watch a video of shearing, carding, spinning, dying, weaving, and sewing a cloak; will have guest speakers who demonstrate carding, spinning and weaving; will unweave fabric looking at the warp and weft; and each student will weave a small piece of cloth. A slide show will be presented from the ALA CD-ROM which shows various African cloth that has been woven and stamped with designs and shows African peoples wearing the cloth with the teacher giving information about each slide. We will also reference a family celebrations language experience chart that we created during our families unit.
Step by Step Procedure:
1. Participate in all of the unit activities stated above.
2. Teacher will read the story, Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters about an African chief and his three daughters. One of the daughters is a weaver and weaves beautiful kente cloth. The story is similar to Cinderella. Followed by discussion of the story and the significance of the cloth.
3. View the ALA CDROM slide show with teacher dialogue and student discussions.
4. Review of slide show (click here to view or download sample slide show list) followed by whole class discussion and creation of a language experience chart listing the celebrations for which Africans create textiles.
5. Reference back to and rereading of the family celebrations chart that we created earlier in the year during our families unit.
6. Whole class discussion of colors and shapes or animals used in the textiles in the slide show.
7. Teacher and/or parent volunteers will mix paints and create the potato stamps.
8. Teacher demonstration of stamping the fabric.
9. Students will create their own stamped design cloth of their favorite family celebration using a 12x12 piece of cloth and designs cut from vegetables dipped in dye (potato stamps) and tempera paint.
10. With parent volunteer help each child's explanation of their stamped textile design will be written down or typed.
Assignment in CD (essays, chapters):
Does not apply at my grade level.
Studio Materials Needed:
Book, Mufao's Beautiful Daughters
Language experience chart paper and markers
A piece of 12x12 cloth for each student
Potatoes, knife
Tempera paints and shallow pans
Paint shirts for students
Vocabulary:
The vocabulary will be taught in the unit prior to this lesson.
Evaluation/Assessment tool (how will objectives be assessed?:
Language experience charts, discussions, and the students finished stamped textile design along with their explanation of their design.
Bibliography/Alternative resources:
Websites:
Submitted 7/28/98