As part of Grade 1's weaving unit we will be making this Spring Tree wall hanging. This is also a good project in the Fall using autumn colors. As a child I remember a macrame version of these trees on a metal hoop but I could not find the instructions anywhere for the life of me so I came up with this version for the students. Another reason why this project works well during the Spring and Fall seasons is that this is when you are pruning your trees and bushes. You need a willow type branch, one that is flexible and will not break while "green". Form a circular loop and tuck the ends in to hold the shape. You want a nice 10 - 12 inch circle. Now you could also do a nice weaving on the willow hoop like this. For the tree I used wool roving...it works especially well at the top of the weaving where it is rounded...you then could add other materials in like bulky yarn or other natural fibers. Now I dye my wool using kool aid or at this time of the year you can use easter egg dye. Place the kool aid or dye in a glass jar, add about 1 1/2 cups of boiling water, stir well, stuff your roving into the mixture and leave to cool. Remove roving and rinse in cold water. When you use Kool aid you'll find all the dye gets absorbed into the wool and you're left with clear water in the jar. COOL! Tie and knot on 15 pieces of brown yarn positioned in an arc on the top of your twig hoop. You can add more if you wish just make sure you have an odd number. I taped down my ends so they wouldn't bother me while weaving...this will be removed when finished. Pulll the yarn pieces down and wrap around the bottom of the hoop. Tie a knot. And pull tight...you can always tighten this as you go if it loosens on you. Taking a piece of roving start weaving on your hoop. You don't have to weave all the way across...you can stop part way and just weave a section...then you can add a different color in another section. Wool sticks well to itself when twisted...at the beginning and end of each weaving you do with the roving you want to twist the end back on itself. You can also tuck the ends into the back of your weaving as well. Normally I would make a shuttle for the kids out of a piece of cardboard or a popsicle stick but I find with this project you just hold the roving in a ball in your hand. With yarn you might want to use the shuttle. (I talk about making a shuttle in this post) Continue weaving using different colors and textures if you wish. I now want to seperate my first main branch...group 5 strands together from the middle section. Now here I'm using brown roving but you could use brown yarn or even strips of brown felt or fabric. Wrap around your 5 strands and tightly wind around going about 1 or 2 inches down...leave the loose tail of roving for now. Add some more weaving in the other sections to bring them down a bit. You are trying to make it look realistic so have one side come down farther than the other. Wrap the branch on the one side in the same way as you did before...leave a tail....then wrap the other side. Then wind them together bringing those 3 tails together. See how the branches are not symmetrical...this looks more realistic. Finally you can trim the knot ends and remove the tape. And that's it....I'm looking forwrd to the Grade 1's versions. We are also embroidering our names on burlap for our end of the year banners. I just used a sharpie to write their names on the burlap and they will be doing a basic back stitch. Here is the project Grade 5 is working on. They are studying the Fur Trade so we are making headresses that have a beaded band and medallion. The beads are drawn in but we are also making paper beads out of newspaper to decorate them with. We should be finished tomorrow so I hope to have the how to and student work pictures for you soon. We are having a bit of an art show for our Parent/Teacher interviews on Thursday night and Friday. I hope to take some good pictures to show you next week. Take care and I'll see you soon.