Art-Making Activity:

Create a Patterned Weaving in Paper

Materials

• 6” x 18” sheets of construction or other heavy paper
(one per student)

• Various narrow strips cut, as described below, from sheets of bright contrasting papers (foil, patterned, construction, etc)

• Glue Sticks

• Envelopes

Directions

1. Cut a loom for each student from sheets of paper measuring 6" x 18" (You may want to have older students cut their own looms). For each loom, use a pencil and a ruler to draw a 1" border around outside edge of the paper. Measure and mark every 1⁄4" inside the border across one of the 6" sides of the loom.

2. Fold the paper loom in half, with the marked side facing up. Measure and mark each 1⁄4" inside the border along the folded edge of the loom. Using the ruler, draw lines to connect these marks.

3. Cut along the lines from the fold of the loom to the edge of the border. You are making the warp of the loom with these cuts.

4. Cut lots of strips measuring 1⁄4" x 6" from a variety of brightly colored papers. Sort the strips by color and store in envelopes. The strips are the weft and will be used to create the weaving.

Demonstrate for your students how to weave the strips in and out of the warp “threads” on the paper loom to create a weaving. Allow time for your students to complete their weavings.