First of all, blogger comments are still not coming through. I've pushed every button I can think of with your tutorial ideas next to me on my phone. Tomorrow I call for techie help. Sheesh.
But today, Friend Laurie and I put our two heads and four hands together to work out a project for this summer's museum day camp.
Sticking with the 250th birthday of the US we thought replicating Betsy Ross's flag might be a good activity for the kids. For the past few months Laurie and I batted around ideas and soon discovered she and I were talking about two different activities - or two ways to approach the one activity. We brainstormed and decided we needed to just get some supplies and actually have a work session to see how accessible our ideas are to 7-12 year old kids.
Laurie did teacher research on the flag will give the kids instruction: there are thirteen red and white stripes, red on top and bottom. The thirteen stars were to be on a blue field. All good. Of course a star was added with each new state but in the beginning it was a thirteen star and stripe flag.
So, we - well, rather SHE - measured size for stripes, the blue field and we big stitched the red felt onto a solid white piece of felt.
Our concern all along the way was making this accessible to a seven year old with no needle skills, I wanted finished edges, which meant big stitching the red onto the white. No seams.
We had stencils for the stars because in the beginning when flag designs were being presented the stars could be and were placed at random OR in "Betsy's" circle. We want to give the kids the freedom to choose their own design.
The bottom line is daughter loved the way they turned out, we proved to ourselves we can get this through the kids' project and give them choices in how to design their own. Our next step is to give this project kitted to three kids in the age range and time them in completing the task.
Check this off the list!
What a great project. This will make a very nice memory.
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