Materials

creating patterns on fabric

Our theme on ‘Materials’ included looking at fabrics as well as wood, glass, metal and plastic. We were particularly lucky as a parent brought in a whole selection of sample fabrics. As we discovered, there was a wide range of designs and patterns as well as different textures. From this we moved on to look at patchwork quilts and tried to create our own patchwork pictures. We read Elmer the Elephant stories by David McKee. Elmer is a patchwork elephant!!

Exploring patterns became a particular maths focus. We used fabric printing in order to try and create our own patterns. We created patterns using building blocks, shapes and used the idea of sequencing two particular colours and then three and four, to create our own. There are many patterns in nature and various animals camouflage themselves very successfully through patterns on their fur or skins. Can you find the animal in this painting?

Making recycled paper

Another material we explored was wood. We discovered that paper is made from wood.


We learnt about the whole process through reading lots of factual books. We also had a go at making our own recycled paper. The process took quite a while. First we had to tear up the old paper into lots of tiny pieces. We left it to soak overnight. The next stage involved making this into a pulp. We placed this pulp into a tray of water and used a mould and deckle and drained the water out. The pulp rests on the top and is then transferred onto a mound of material in order to soak up the water. We then layered more cotton material on top. It was all left to dry. We ended up with a whole new piece of recycled paper.

using a mould and deckle
the finished paper