Preschoolers at Zion Lutheran proudly display the fiber they dyed with Kool-Aide with D’Amone Popp, Ag in the Classroom volunteer.
Second and third graders from Zion are watching D’Amone Popp place the fiber into the drum carder which the students then used to card the fiber.
Throughout the past month, students in preschool through grade 6 participated in a New York Agriculture in the Classroom program related to fiber and weaving. The mission of the Agriculture in the classroom program is to foster awareness, understanding, and appreciation of how food, fiber, and natural resources are produced. The Agriculture in the Classroom program provided the, Weaving the Rainbow by George Ella Lyon, as well as some wool.
In the book the shepherd takes care of her flock and turns the freshly shorn, lustrous white wool into a weaving project. The shepherd dyes, cards, spins, and weaves the wool to create a beautiful woven scene of her sheep grazing in the pasture. After a volunteer read the story aloud, students worked with wool by dyeing, carding, spinning, and weaving yarn on a small handloom. Katie and Daniel Popp of the Hoof and Claw 4-H Club of Tioga County provided additional fiber including wool from Finnsheep, Rommney and Jacob sheep, and mohair from Angora and cashmere from Myotonic goats. Having an assortment of fiber from different animals enabled students to experience the similarities and differences between different types of fiber.
Fourth grader Gianna Ferraro listens to instructions from D’Amone Popp on how to use the spinning wheel to turn fiber into yarn.
The students learned a lot about where fiber comes from and the steps required to turn wool into yarn in every color of the rainbow. Additionally, some of the students felted some of the dyed wool to make multi-colored marbles. To prepare their fiber for weaving projects, the students used drum and hand carders, a spinning wheel, drop spindles, and a yarn ball winder. Each student learned how to warp a loom by wrapping yarn around the pegs of small handmade looms. Then they made the weft by weaving across, interlacing their multi-colored yarn through the warp stands of yarn.
At the conclusion of the fiber and weaving project, some of Daniel and Katie Popp’s 4-H animals visited Zion Lutheran School. The students enjoyed meeting a Myotonic Goat, as well as a Finnsheep ewe and her one month-old lamb. Visit the Agriculture in the classroom website, www.agclassroom.org/ny for additional information and resources.
Kindergartener Cooper Dember shows his fiber marble that he felted.
Zion Lutheran School enrolls children from preschool through grade six in a Christ-centered environment with high academic standards in a loving, family like atmosphere. The school accepts children from all denominations and services other local districts including Candor, Newark Valley, Union Endicott, Tioga Center and parts of Vestal.
For more information about Zion, call 687-6376, or visit www.zionowego.org. You can also find them on Facebook.
