Add pizzazz to a woven basket craft with special stringing beads! The basket doubles as a sensory material for children to play with as it makes a lot of noise when you shake it. Children will love playing with the decorative beads! They’re large enough to be strung through any size of string and are easy to handle.
You’ll need:
• R16003 Classroom Weaving Baskets
The woven basket comes with special stringing strips that children can use to weave throughout the basket frame. These stringing strips are printed with gradient rainbow colors so they add interesting patterning to the basket too. You’ll need a whole package of beads depending on how many you choose to use with the stringing technique. Make sure you lay out all your materials first before starting! Tip: Keep workstations clean by sorting all the materials into classroom bowls. We make special multi-purpose R5519 Classroom Bowls that are great for designating special areas for children to craft. They minimize mess and keep your students organized! Use a basic weaving pattern to start off your basket weaving design.
The pack of weaving strips comes pre-cut to fit one complete woven circle around the basket. Start with one weaving strip and weave one end over or under a corner of the basket. Secure the end of the weaving strip on the inside of the basket with a bit of tape to conceal it. If you began under the corner, use the remaining length of the weaving strip to wrap over the next bar of the basket frame. Go under the next bar, then over the following bar and continue around the basket in this pattern. Eventually you will loop around to the first corner from where you started. If you began the entire weaving strip under the corner like I did, use the remaining length of the weaving strip to weave over the corner. This will cover it up to make your weaving look seamless! Below, I did a weave pattern to show you how I insert the weaving strip over and under the bars of the basket frame.
Now I can start adding the R2183 Fancy Stringing Rings! To weave in the ring, I leave some slack as I weave the strip through the bars. As I approach the spot where I would like to weave in the Fancy Stringing Ring, I insert the ring through the end and then pull the entire weaving strip through. Tip: Make sure the Fancy Stringing Ring is inserted on the outside of the weave or along the outer side of the basket. Continue weaving in and out along the side of the basket until you reach a spot where you decide to insert another Fancy Stringing Ring. Repeat the above steps to continue interweaving the beads with the weaving strip. Weave the Fancy Stringing Rings in a sequence.
Count how many basket bars there are between the first and second Fancy Stringing Rings. Repeat the pattern by counting out the number of bars between each next Fancy Stringing Ring you add to the weave. Tip: Keep the number of bars between Fancy Stringing Rings between 3-5 bars. This way, students can practice their numbering and sequencing while building fine motor skills!
I decided to get a bit fancy with the decorating and did a ribbon wrap-around along the brim of the basket. Wrap the weaving strip once or twice between each set of bars. Slip in a Fancy Stringing Ring every so often along the weave. Secure the ends with tape or tuck underneath the weave.
Keep weaving as many times as you want around the basket to fill in the empty spaces. Use a variety of different colors to match the rainbow colors of the weaving strips!
