Fine Motor Skills - Weaving

Weaving is a great fine motor skill which can be used to create some lovely finished products, either in the art class room or in the regular classroom. For students who are part of a mainstream group, the activity of weaving can be easily modified to suit their ability level, while for students who are in a special education setting, the task can be developed over a period of days or weeks as skills progress.

Weaving is used in many situations and in many parts of the world- making mats, baskets, decorative items, place mats, and in the South Pacific, it is even used for functional items such as hats! If you can find the materials, give weaving a go using fibers such as hessian, reeds, grasses or leaves which can be either woven in between each other or combined to create a multilayered effect. Otherwise, go for simple paper strips of various contrasting colors that can be managed easily in the classroom. Early on, it is useful to have highly contrasting colors as they are easier for students to organize and differentiate between when they are threading them into their pattern.

• A large piece of plain paper for the backing
• A smaller piece of colored paper
• Strips of multicolored paper
• Scissors
• Paste or glue
• Decorations – sparkles, glitter, confetti

Fold the smaller sheet of colored paper in half. Make cuts across the paper from the folded side but stop before you cut right through the paper. Stop about 1 inch from the edge. Make a row of cuts about ½ inch apart. Unfold the paper and lay it flat. Use a paper strip to weave in and out through the cuts you have made in the paper. Work slowly – over, under, over, under. Leave some of the strip hanging over at the end. Check whether you passed the first strip ‘over’ or ‘under’ to begin. Start your next strip the opposite way around. So if you started with ‘over,’ change to ‘under’ first for your next strip. This is what makes the checkerboard pattern in your mat.

When you have filled the mat with strips, trim the edges neatly. Paste the mat to the large piece of paper to hold the strips firmly in place. Allow time for it to dry, then decorate with glitter, sparkles, or confetti if you wish. You may prefer to leave your mat just the way it is!

Encourage students to plan their pattern before they begin, and to check frequently that they are weaving the right way. Encouraging a well organised work area is also helpful, as this is a vital skill needed in later student life.

It is better to stop weaving briefly when an error is first found than to continue on to the end and become frustrated and disappointed because the strips have been woven the wrong way.

Being able to plan and organize a fine motor task is important for young children. Fine motor planning activities such as paper folding, using construction toys and making a pyramid out of matchsticks are a all examples of tasks that can be useful activities to improve fine motor skills through the development of the ability to plan movements. Many tasks are described in the task cards created by Coralee Lawrence, an Australian Occupational Therapist in her 'Rainbow Road' kit. The kit also includes task cards on crossing the midline, gross motor planning, visual and auditory memory and sequencing skills.