paper plate weaving

My sixth graders did two types of weavings. 

I first saw this weaving technique on themanualescanigo.blogspot.com/. I love, love, love this blog.

One class tried the paper plate weaving. They turned out pretty well. We had a bit of trouble trying to regulate the distance of the cuts for stringing the weft in the paper plates. The theory is that the number of strings in the plate should be uneven so that when you go around you naturally end up weaving in an over and under pattern with no issue. If your weft strings are an even number, you will have to remember to alternate or skip going over  (or under) a weft every time you complete a circle or the weaving will not alternate "over and under" and it will start to bunch up. This can be confusing for the students.

The students were instructed to draw a pattern with colored markers to coordinate and to try to cut out a little pattern from the edges to make the design more interesting.

Here are the some of the paper plate weavings.