Thread winding with children

Judith Baines sends us another intriguing way to keep children happily occupied with simple materials

Another simple but rewarding technique for children is winding threads round pieces of card.  I know this sounds strange but it can cause children to look closely and gives them experience of a wide variety of threads – any type of string, ribbon, wools or sewing cottons can be used. 

Take a strip of card and run double-sided sellotape down from top to bottom.  Then help the child to select an idea as a starting point.  It might be a shell or a photo of a favourite rural landscape.  Select the appropriate threads and wind them carefully round the card.  The tape will hold each wind in place.  The photographs show interpretations by three five-year-olds of a stuffed fox they had in school. They all noticed the black tips to its ears! Also shown is an older child`s picture of the Yorkshire Moors  and my own depiction of the Humber Bridge using two strips of card.  As you see, there are endless possibilities for card making. 

A strip of double-sided tape down a tube will enable a three-D tower to be made.  A group of children made a row of these in the colours of the rainbow, graduating their threads from dark to light.