Title - Indian Basket Weaving
By - Paula Hrbacek
Primary Subject - Art
Secondary Subjects - Social Studies
Grade Level - 3 to 6
American Indians made baskets out of natural materials. This is an easy and inexpensive means of weaving a basket.
Materials: paper drinking cups, raffia or brown plastic shopping bags, and scissors. Older students can use tin cans, tin snips and twine to make a plant pot. If using tin, be sure to wear rubber gloves to avoid cut fingers.
Vocabulary: warp (up and down), woof (across)
Each student will need to make cuts down the sides of the cup, from the rim to the bottom, but not through the bottom. It must be an odd number of cuts in order for the weaving to come out right. The cuts should be about half an inch apart, and parallel. Try to make a straight cut. If your cut is jagged, trim off any "thorns" that will make weaving difficult.
If you do not have raffita, you can substitute plastic bags. Cut off the handles, and then make a spiral cut, about one to two inches wide from the top to the bottom. It does not have to be exact. This will create one long strip of plastic. You can also use strips of fabric, yarn or twine.
Begin weaving the strip under, over, under, over, tucking the end on the inside of the cup. Spread the paper cup strips apart, and curl them if you want the basket to be wide or rounded. When you end one strip, tuck the end on the inside of the cup, under a previous row. Continue weaving to the top.
Assessment:
Completely done, and tightly packed = A,
Three fourths, or paper showing, = B,
half done = C,
one fourth = D,
nothing = F.
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