Thursday, 14 March 2013

Threads and Wool ~ Activity time at Playgroup

This is fun and simple invitation for your children to get creative, play and work at their own level with many learning benefits.
Great for multi age groupings as children can work to their level.
can be modified to suit most ages from 8months onwards
Learning Possibilities
Sensory awareness
Language development
Fine motor development
Understanding of lines using three dimensional materials
You will need
a variety of wool and threads of different thicknesses, textures and lengths
Glue- PVA works best & glue brushes/ sticks
Card, paper, paper plate or any surface you wish to work on

Look at those busy hands working!
Discussion Points
Talk about the flexibility of the wool.
What shapes can you make?
How can you bend your lines?
Can you make them curly, straight, zigzags?
What pictures can you make?
Introduce vocabulary such as straight, bent, curved, spiral, long, short, fluffy, smooth, sparkly etc
Which thread is fluffy, skinny, long etc?

"Look, I made a letter 's' with my wool"
The three year olds in our group enjoyed exploring the wool and gluing as much of it as they could down in many different patterns. We kept this an open ended experience and let children complete it and create however they saw appropriate. A number of children did more than one, some wanted to add drawings to their work.
For older children you could encourage them to get creative with the lines they can create. Can you make a zigzag, spiral, love heart? Can you make your name? The opportunities are endless.

Even the younger members of the group enjoyed exploring the textures of the wool!﻿

Extend on this Activity
Explore woollen jumpers or knitted blankets.
Demonstrate knitting and how the wool is turned into jumpers and blankets.
Talk about where the wool comes from
If you have access, get some wool straight from a sheared sheep for the children to touch and smell.
Read stories and books about sheep and wool,
Little Baa by Kim Lewis
Warm as Wool by Russell Sanders
Three Bags Full by Ragnhild Scamell

Sing songs
Baa baa black sheep
Old MacDonald had a farm

Play and Learn


  1. Look at the concentration on their little faces! They loved it!!

    1. They certainly all did! It was a great activity.

  2. I'm doing this tomorrow with my preschool art group! Thanks!

    1. Great!! I hope they loved it as much as our group!!