In November, I decided to introduce sewing to my grade 4 class. Sewing is an art that has long been lost amongst kids and is no longer thought to be as important of a life skill as it was even just a generation ago. To introduce sewing to my grade 4 class, I decided on the most basic activity: sewing a button. The purpose of this activity was for students to first get used to sewing movements, before moving on to more complex sewing projects.
Things required:
- Cloth
- Needles
- Thread
- Scissors
During our sewing activity, some of the skills we focused on were:
Motor Skills
While older kids are likely more proficient with their motor skills, those who are slightly younger will still struggle a little when it comes to their fine motor skills. Sewing is actually one activity that can help students improve these motor skills, as well as develop hand-eye
coordination. Surprisingly enough, what I observed was students who struggled with handwriting were also the ones who found it hardest to stitch.
Cognitive Development & Inculcating Patience
Our sewing activity encouraged students to think and strengthen their problem-solving skills. In addition, becoming proficient with sewing takes time, and for students to become good at it requires them to have patience. Given that this is a skill that takes time to get better at, patience
and sewing go hand-in-hand.
Life Skills
Perhaps one of the most important things learned from sewing is the simple survival skill; the
ability to sew a button themselves rather than being dependent on someone to do this task for them.
