99 Tie Dye Shirts on the wall..99 Tie Dye Shirts

Today we started a project...........
to tie dye a shirt for 40 kids ..........
to start our new year...................
and so far.............here are 12.











They are too light. And it's exhausting believe it or not undoing all the rubber bands.

So...tomorrow.

1) Leave longer in the dye.

2) Get the better dye over at the craft store.

3) Get a few tiny shirts as these are kind of big......

4) Go over to school and turn on the entire aquarium.

5) Quit Leadership. The retreat starts tomorrow. I think I'm going to quit so I can do some projects tomorrow.

So let's pretend after all of that babble you have never stopped by this blog before. Welcome. I'm a 1st grade teacher that is actively involved in reviving myself this summer and refocusing my energies on teaching. After 24 or 25 years at this getting ready for the new year is on my mind. My classroom is torn up with them cleaning the carpets so I cannot do the work necessary to start school...so I've been going to my classroom in a hood school preparing and cycling a new tropical aquarium, tie dying a set of shirts for the kids, labeling and preparing the room so that on the first day things are interesting and that it's organized and ready...it's all you really can do because you don't know. Just today a friend of mine observed as she watched me launch the aquarium..that she's just practically worried about getting the tables back in place. Mario the janitor, another friend, said the Superintendent and big wigs were in my room impressed in the AM discussing if i need to remove stuff I hooked up to the ceiling but he says it is fine...I think my Super supportive. My room is unique. The artist's space.

Feng Sway.

So what I'm going to do here is make a few suggestions.
There is a great site called KinderArt.
I find lessons there all the time and adapt them to first grade. Any parent or teacher if you haven't gone to it would like it. I found a good tie-dye page there today.
I'm pasting it in but the site is well worth time spent there.

KinderArt® Lesson/Activity

EASY TIE DYE

Subject: Painting and Textiles
Grade: K+
Age: 4+

Submitted by: Submitted by: Amanda Formaro, WebMom at FamilyCorner.com Magazine.

Objectives:

Watch your child's (or student's) face light up when you remove that first rubber band from your tie dyed t-shirt. It is truly amazing the designs that one can create with so few tools. Try these super easy tie dyes for kids and see what ours were raving about!

For the purposes of simplicity, we chose to use one color per garment, rather than multiple colors that are so often seen. You can also use colored garments and use a contrasting dye color to achieve the same results.

What You Need:

• various colors of fabric dye (available in the housewares department)
• rubber bands
• rubber gloves
• marbles
• tap water
• garments such as t-shirts, cotton shorts, old jeans, etc.

What You Do:

Begin by rubberbanding your garment according to the design you wish to achieve. See the pictures below followed by the method in which to reach that result.

sunburst	lines	circles
marble and several rubber bands	rubber bands only	marble and one rubber band

Prepare dye according to package directions. Be sure to wear rubber gloves to protect your hands! Dye can be just as damaging as bleach to your unprotected skin. Please take the proper safety precautions recommended.

Once your garment is ready, place in the dye for at least 15-20 minutes. The longer the garment remains in the dye, the darker and deeper the color will become. Remove from the dye and rinse according to package directions, usually in cold running water. Ring out garment until water runs clear.

Carefully remove rubber bands and marbles to reveal your new design! No design will be the same as another and different effects can be reached by combining the different methods mentioned above. See below for our results and be sure to have a good time!

>>I used Rit dye, but I used the powdered kind. You mix the powder with cold tap water. The shirts only stayed in for 15 minutes at the longest. The pictures were taken when the shirts were still wet, so that may show them a bit richer in color. But they still came out nice, even after drying in the clothes dryer.<<

Another really good site for art lessons, or to just go for art ideas is, amazingly, Crayola's. Well worth time there. So this is the link to their lesson plans.

But let's say you are SERIOUS about Tie dye.
Here are some links for you.....

This site is great. I didn't do anything they said and my colors were lousy...so tomorrow I'll do some of the suggestions and see if I can brighten this color. With about 60 shirts to go...it'll be important to figure out why the color is too light. In the craft store there wasn't the dye recommended here...but there was something I'm going to try......here's where to get the best dyes.

Wikipedia has EVERYTHING, somehow, but the pages on Tie Dye helped us. I was aiming to make a spiral, did. The kids were trying for hearts, Syl for various patterns from String theory to something that was beyond me...and here on Wiki was some info to make this.

Here was a wiki on tie dye. Pretty cool again showing me tomorrow I'm going to TRY A FEW THINGS.

Here is a really good lesson plan from Kid At Art. I do find good plans there...sometimes.