The Great Otter Sewing Bee

For the last two weeks if you had ventured into Otters class you would have seen a busy hive of children sewing, threading and cutting. Our classroom had been transformed into our very own version of the recent programme, 'The Great British Sewing Bee.'

This all stemmed from Lucas' interest in all things fabric! Since September there has been a intriguing box of multicoloured threads, assorted buttons and shiny, sharp needles waiting to be discovered. Lucas excitedly opening the needle tin and exclaimed in delight that he remembered sewing in FS1.


For those of you that have been following the blog for the past year you might remember the
infamous Superhero day of last year's Otter class where a donated bag of fabric found itself cut up
and made into capes and "power cuffs". Well that box of fabric had another outing on the day Lucas found the needles. Many other children persevered with threading the needles and watched as Lucas showed them how to push the needle through the fabric.

Mrs Lewis was treated to a very trendy, robot shoulder bag complete with a red, ribbon handle, chosen just for her and painstakingly attached with a very neat running stitch.

Seeing how much Mrs Lewis loved her shoulder bag started an explosion of threads and material and soon I had to think of a way to capture this sudden fascination within the classroom and extend the children's learning.

This is where the Great Otter Sewing Bee came in. The sewing box was moved from the smaller funky fingers table and placed on a table of its own. With it, was an assortment of materials, needles and ribbons all waiting to be transformed into something brand new and original.

This week we have seen more bags....including a teeny tiny bag made for a fairy by Finlay and a dark, black vampire cape made by our seamstress Kerron. I have observed very technical talk, creative problem solving, tricky fine motor skills (I haven't been threading any needles) and incredible perseverance at this table and have been incredibly impressed with the children's design skills.

I am looking forward to seeing where this will take us this week...I am hopeful that this new fascination will last until our Stay and Play on the 27th November. That way, you will have extra help when creating your wonderful Christmas play costumes.