Simple Paper Weaving Craft

I love this time of year when we learn about the early colonists. We worked on a fun little “cloth” weaving project that’s super simple and does not require any crafty skills. My kind of project! I needed to find an alternative for weaving yarn on a loom 1. because I don’t have a loom and 2. I don’t want one. So I went with a paper weaving activity using good old fashioned construction paper. My son loved it, and it’s so nice to have his little hands busy when I’m reading through the textbook. He seems to grasp the information so much better if he’s working on a relevant project that ties in with the lesson and brings history to life. As we looked at actual pictures of cloth making, he worked on his “cloth”. Love it.

All you need is:
construction paper
glue stick
paper cutter
scissors

This is going to be easy peasy!

First, you will need to fold your construction in half paper lengthwise. Then, from the FOLDED side cut one inch slits, but leave about an inch of uncut paper. Notice that in this picture I cut the wrong side. Argh! Make sure to begin your slits from the folded edge. Who knew you could screw up such an easy project? Leave it to me!

Don’t be jealous of m veggie tales band-aid!

After round two, I ended up with this.

See how the slits don’t go all the way to the edge? You want that!

Now you need the strips that will be weaved through your base. To get these I used a 12 x 12 paper cutter. My construction paper was long, so in order to get it to fit in the cutter I had to fold it in half.

Cut one inch strips of two different colors.

Now you’re ready to weave! You will simply rotate the strips through the base going over and under the base strips. Of course, I prepped for this, and my son wanted different colors than those I had already cut. I guess that’s a homeschool luxury he’s lucky to have.

You’ll need to glue each strip down on the ends to keep them from slipping.

He decorated with crayons and markers. Done!

The happy crafter!

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Adrienne

Somewhere along the way I picked up homeschooling two boys and blogging. When I'm not scrubbing toilets or answering endless questions, I'm usually here, over sharing it all! My writing is always honest, sometimes sarcastic, and never perfect. I hope to keep my kids from seeking adult therapy. I know. Pipe dreams...You can find me as @TheMommyMess on Twitter and on Facebook.

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