Category: Clothing

Recycled Sweater Challenge

Lately I’ve seen a lot of really innovative projects made out of old sweaters, especially on Pinterest. This got me thinking about what a great project this would be for my students to practice the concept of recycling or repurposing materials. So I visited my local thrift store and lucky for me they had a clearance rack of clothing, much of it old wool sweaters. I gathered as many as I could find into my cart and headed for the check out. The possibilities that could be made with all of these sweaters were endless! I couldn’t wait to challenge my students and see how creative they could be and teach them to recycle/repurpose as well as teach basic sewing skills at the same time.

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The Mini-Book Project

Every once in awhile I find myself without technology access due to school wide testing and I need an alternate assignment. This was how the mini-book project came to be. You could consider this an interactive foldable where students must use class notes and resources to complete. The beauty of these is that they can be used with any age group and can be as simple or as elaborate as you want them to be. Below you will find a few ideas on how mini-books can be used with FACS related topics.

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The Power of Purple: Shaken Baby Syndrome & The Period of Purple Crying

While Shaken Baby Syndrome might be a familiar term associated with child abuse, the Period of Purple Crying may not be. The two terms are closely related as the constant crying associated with purple crying may lead one to violently shake their child. This lesson educates students about both to hopefully decrease the risks of both occurring in the future. This lesson also includes a fairly quick and easy community service project for students of all ages and abilities to complete to help spread information about the important cause.

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The Life of a T-Shirt: NPR Planet Money Inspired Lesson

I don’t know about your experience but in mine I’ve found that  high schoolers tend to think they know everything. So I just LOVE to teach lessons that make them unusually quiet, sitting on the edge of their seats soaking…

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The Future of Fabrics

In case you’ve missed it, here are a few of the up and coming technologies in the fiber and fabrics world. Use these clips, lectures,  and articles as introductions or fillers with your other lessons. Spider Silk: stronger than steel…

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Thanksgiving Lessons, Worksheets, PowerPoints

Here are a few holiday ideas to either help your department raise money, fit in some extra holiday excitement, or comply with a half day schedule. Happy Thanksgiving!

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Bedtime Fears & Fear Me Not Community Service Lessons

This amazing lesson is the Winner of our Child Development Lesson Plan Competition! The goal of this lesson is to explore bedtime issues/fears of children & how to respond to them. Students will also create a community service project called “Fear-Me-Not” characters to help children in abuse shelters feel more secure and safe during their stay.

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Runway Recycle/Refashion Project

This exciting project was inspired by Project Runway. I have fill three suitcases with consignment items and put students in project groups. Groups choose a suitcase and refashion a garment out of the items in the suitcase. They take before and after pictures and learn a variety of construction techniques along the way.

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Preemie Caps

I felt as if the children didn’t truly understand the size of a premature baby until I presented them with the Preemie Caps project. Using the sewing machine students will make very basic stitches to make hats for premature babies that eventually get donated to a local Children’s Hospital.

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