5th Grade - Slits and Strips

The 5th graders are starting samplers for paper weaving (like an example on a bedside table at Riverside at the Farnsley Moremen Landing) , starting with a simple Over/Under and changing variables... right now that means the width of the slits and the strips.  If the students feel comfortable enough they may accept the challenge to try both a twill and herringbone weave.

 twill                          herringbone

Did you know that the Jacquard Loom is a distant ancestor of 20th-century computers?  The Jacquard mechanism, the first practical application of punch-cards (binary system), had significance beyond the textile industry.  It offered solutions to problems faced by 19th-century inventors of computing machines and can be considered a distant ancestor of 20th-century computers.