In third grade (7- 9 year olds) I like to do loom weaving. Blick has these fancy awesome cardboard looms but you can just use cardboard of course, it just takes a lot more prep and it's good to teach kids about alternatives to using fancy things. I also like to use really thick yarn. Little hands have an easier time building up the layers for weaving.
Since I was able to get some fancy looms, I wanted them to last. So I labeled one side with my room number, etc. and "laminated" this side with some heavy duty packing tape. Since we use masking tape to write our names and secure the strings while we weave, the glossy side of the loom makes that process easy and more reusable.
Bonus: To make a checkerboard pattern on your loom just weave alternate 6 inch singles and repeat one color in the center of the pattern, alternating the order of vertical stripes. I use 6 of each color to do this. (see photo/blackboard diagram)
Until the next! Happy art Making!
Fancy Card board looms: http://www.dickblick.com/products/wide-notch-cardboard-looms/
