Students

Yesterday I had to go to Wal-Mart and buy the supplies for our sewing unit.  Sewing is actually not a standard that is required in FACS anymore, but many of my students love to try their hand at sewing or making a tie pillow, etc.  Thus, I have set aside close to three weeks for our classes to work on these projects. All sixth graders have to learn to sew a button in my class, so I start out by showing them a couple of examples of our felt/button projects from last year.  Then then have to pick from one of three projects:  a fleece tie pillow, a fleece tie and sew pillow or a table runner.  This year's group had seen many of these from last year and the excitement started as they chose what they wanted to make and spent time deciding on whether they wanted to purchase their own supplies or buy from the "FACS stores."

This year's seventh and eighth grade classes were given the option of choosing from any of the projects that they we did last year or one of the three new ones that I introduced this year - a t-shirt cinch bag, a t-shirt pillow, or a pillowcase.  This year they also had the opportunity to come up with their own projects.  In order for it to work, they had to find the directions on how to make their project and a supply list.  Thus, one of my eighth graders is making a dress and three of the boys are making hacky sacks.

My favorite student inspired project, however, is a ghillie suit.  When the seventh grader, who is making it, emailed me with his idea, I had never heard of a ghillie suit.  I had to Google the definition to find out that a ghillie suit, also known as a yowie suit, or camo tent, is a type of camouflage clothing designed to resemble heavy foliage.  I am not much of a hunter, so I would have had no idea what it was.  My first reaction was - "There is no way we can pull this off."  However, this young man has a mother with breast cancer and his world has been filled with anxiety this past month, so I decided why not try.  It would give him something else to focus on these next few weeks.

He and I talked with his mother at conferences and she was ok with us trying it, knowing the supplies would be $15 (normally our projects cost closer to $6.)  He gave me his supply list and I was off and running.  I wasn't sure that our Wal-Mart would carry burlap and netting, but much to my surprise they had exactly what he needed.  The woman working in the fabric department had not only heard of a ghillie suit, but could direct me exactly to where I could find the materials and called someone up from hardware to locate the twine.  I do not know where this project will take him or how it will look in the end, but I drove home proud of my students for taking a risk and trying something new.  That is the best part of being a teacher.