Group Learning Experience Planning Sheet:

Student Name: Jessica Edwards Course Code: ECS4070

Age Group: 4 to 5 years. September 22nd 2017

Learning Experience: Art and Fine Motor Activity-Needle Felting Animal Toys
Programming Purpose:

On a previous placement day I began a wet felting project, using roving wool and water to
create stuffed animals. The children designed their own puppies or kittens using a customized
colouring sheet in order to keep their shapes simple but allow freedom for colours and design.
In order to complete the stuffed animals a portion of the parts need to be felted using a needle
tool. I was originally going to do these parts by myself and bring the finished product back to
the classroom. My supervisor suggested that I find a safe way for the children to explore new
tools by using the needle felting tool. I was able to find a tool that was not sharp enough to
cause injury and find a method that would make it impossible for the children to poke
themselves by holding their pieces with tweezers, while they used the needle tool with one
hand.
Objective:
The children will:
1) Expand cognitive skills related to cause and effect while manipulating materials and
experimenting with different tools.
2) Practice fine motor skills while shaping and manipulating roving wool into their
desired shapes with a needle tool.
3) Practice cognitive and creative skills related to planning and design when choosing
their animals colours, ears and tails, and using them to fill in an animal planning sheet.
Materials:

Roving Wool In Various Colours

One Animal Planning Sheet per child (24 total)
Needle tool
Large Felting Mat
Tweezers
Cleaning spray
Paper Towel
Set Up:

Implementation

1. I will place the felting mat, roving wool container and needle tool on a table.
2. I w ill gather the childrens kitten and puppy felt projects that we created during our
wet felting activity.
3. I will call one child at a time to work on their kitten or puppy one-on-one with myself.
4. Before we begin I will have a brief conversation with the child about how to work with
a needle felting tool safely. This includes the following rules:
a. We use the needle felting tool with one hand, and we put our other hand at our
side, or hold the large felting mat.
b. We never point the felting tool towards ourselves or others,
c. When we take a break from using the needle tool, we poke it into the felting
mat so that it cannot poke anyone.
d. We are allowed to watch our friends work, but if we are watching, we keep our
hands away from the felting mat to make sure that we are safe.
5. After our discussion I will ask the student to pick their roving wool colours to create
their animals ears, tail, arms and legs.
6. The student will then decide which part of their animal they want to work on first.
Based on their choice the student will roll their roving wool into their desired shapes.
Ex. a small triangle shape for ears, a long snake-like shape for a tail.
7. After the basic shapes are made, the student will hold the needle felting tool in their
dominant hand and use repetitive poking motion to press the fibres of the roving wool
into each other to create shapes.
8. For larger parts of the animal, I will use tweezers to hold the pieces for the children
while they work so they do not have to put their hands near the needle tool.
9. We will continue to felt different body parts until the students animal is complete or
they choose to take a break for the day. This project will be an ongoing project due to
the time needed to complete the activity and the number of students in the classroom.
10. After the students are finished felting I will collect the leftover materials and tools and
store them in a safe container away from the any areas the children have access to.
11. I will wipe down the table used for the activity with cleaning spray and paper towels
and sweep the floor.
Learning Strategy #1
Hand-Over-Hand Guidance

Due to the use of a needle tool, some children in the classroom may not have the fine motor
skills to repeatedly poke their pieces for a long period of time. There are also small details like
the animals eyes that need to be poked repeatedly with fairly good aim, hand-over-hand
guidance can help the children with special small details that are to be needled in if they have
trouble aiming.
Learning Strategy #2
Do-it Signals

When the children need assistance in taking their next steps in making their puppies and
kittens I will assist them using do-it signals. These signals can also be useful when instructing
the children on how to use the needle tool. Examples of do-it signals for this project include:
Try poking your kittens ear gently to help the wool make a triangle shape.
Hold the needle in your hand like a pencil and poke your kitten in the area of its body
that you want to make smoothe.
Lets roll your puppys tail on the felting mat to make it into a snake shape before we
use the needle tool.

Overall Evaluation
What worked during this experience? Why?
What did not work during this experience? Why?

What might you have done differently?

What theory might you use to support these changes?