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- WarmUp
America!
- 3rd-Grade
Knitting Club
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The 2007-2008 School Year will be the fifth
year for the Westwood Knitting Club.
Visit this page, again, for exciting news.
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| Teamwork |
| Teamwork is the
one word that comes to mind as I look with awe at the wonderful
handiwork of our little ones. Check out this beautiful afghan,
a collection of 7X9" rectangles, each stitch knit with love
by our third-grade Knitting Club Members, our Bales Mentors, and
our Community Volunteers. |
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| When a Westwood student completes
a patch, it's turned in to our Bales Mentors. They crochet a border
around the patch, then give it to parent volunteer Mary Warwick.
With a needle and yarn in hand, she stitches the patches together
and voila, it's a patchwork throw. This year's blanket will be
donated to the Westwood PTO to be auctioned off at Round Up on
April 12th. The proceeds will go to two charitable organizations,
our PTO and Save the Children. With one month of Knitting Club
meetings left, students are busily working on the next afghan,
a baby blanket to be donated to the Center for Pregnancy for an
expectant mother and her newborn. This year marks the fifth-year
anniversary for Westwood's Knitting Club and to date, they have
donated a dozen handmade afghans to people in need. |
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| Knit Together |
| Our third-grade
knitting club resumed meetings in February so that we could get
closer to our goal on completing a patchwork afghan for someone
in need. Bales mentors are hard at work crocheting a border around
each of our 7X9" patches; check out their handiwork! Each
Thursday morning, we meet in the cafeteria for some social time
and to add stitches to our patches. In between visits, students
are encouraged to knit whenever and wherever they can, especially
in the car on their way to their other activities. A few students
have gotten so good at their craft that they can actually knit
while they're watching television! In any event, these little
needleworkers are finding out that the more they knit, the faster
their complete their patches, and the closer to finishing our
goal we become. |
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| We extend our sincere
appreciation to our community mentors, Mrs. Laura and Mrs. Beverly,
who come out early on Thursdays to help us detangle knots and
pick up dropped stitches, to Mrs. Mary Warwick for coordinating
the Bales mentors and sewing our patches into a blanket, and
to our Bales mentors who give up their time and share their talents
with us. The finished product truly is a team effort. |
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| Knitting A Memory |
| The third-grade
ambassadors from Westwood's Knitting Club met at Summerville
of Friendswood on Thursday after school to deliver their handmade
bookmarks to residents on the Alzheimer's wing there. We were
greeted with a smile and told by the employees that these people
didn't normally get visits from children. Interestingly enough,
this outing proved somewhat challenging to the little needle-workers
trying to give a gift to those who didn't fully understand why
the children were even there. A few of the residents actually
gave their bookmarks back. One lady, however, seemed to momentarily
regain her memory at the flash of the camera, and, when she realized
that she could keep the bookmark, that it was a gift from us
for her, her face lit up the room. |
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| The joy and happiness that today's
brief visit brought to both the knitters and the residents truly
made the confusion worth it. After sharing their bookmarks with
their new friends and chatting about their new craft, this tightly-knit
group sang "We wish you a Merry Christmas" before heading
home. We thank Summerville for giving us the opportunity to share
the gift of our time and our handiwork. |
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| Bookmark It! |
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These days when
people talk about a bookmark, it quite often refers to a website
address that they want their computer to remember. That's not,
however, what the word bookmark means to the knitters in Westwood's
third-grade Knitting Club. |
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Check out these colorful handmade bookmarks,
beautifully crafted by our little needleworkers. Members of the
Club and their Mentors from Bales have been invited to Summerville
at Friendswood (1310 S. Friendswood Drive) on Thursday, December
6, to deliver their handiwork to the residents there. Students
are asked to meet Mrs. Gruener, the club's sponsor, and the parent
volunteers at Summerville at 3:30 p.m that afternoon to spread
some holiday cheer and greet the recipients of their bookmarks.
It promises to be a heartwarming, intergenerational
activity, so "bookmark" your calendars now.
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| A "Clique" for
Service |
| Not that kind of a clique, what
was heard Thursday morning was the clicking of knitting needles
as 98 novice knitters came to the cafeteria to learn the knit
stitch. Thanks to community knitters from Marie's Yarn Shop,
who cast on the first 10 stitches to facilitate our initial go-round,
third-grade Knitting Club members quickly learned terms like
pattern, working yarn, tail, row, and, yes, even dropped stitch. |
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We pledged to persevere and give knitting
our best shot, knowing that it might be difficult to catch on
at first. In unison, we recited our mantra "We Like Difficult!"
Twenty student mentors from Bales joined in the fun to help get
the ball rolling and teach our needlworkers to knit using the
poem: Under the fence, Catch the sheep, Back we come, Off we
leap.
Thirty morning minutes didn't seem to satisfy
their need to knit, so students invited Mrs. Gruener to snacktime
and recess, where they lined up to practice just a little more
with their new needles and that ball of worsted-weight yarn.
Our first service project this fall will be making bookmarks
that we can donate to the Public Library and/or local retirement
facilities. Once we've mastered our small projects, we will make
rectangles for patchwork afghans to give to people in need. As
always, if you would like to become involved, why 'knot' join
us as a volunteer! We do ask that our volunteers check in at
the front desk each Thursday and we thank them for sharing their
time and talent with us.
Two reminders for those of you who have a
third grader in our Knit Club: 1. Please don't drop students
off before 7:10 on Thursdays as the doors do not open until then
and students will be unsupervised outside. 2. Due to Donuts with
Dudes, we will not hold Knitting Club on Thursday, October 11th.
In the event that your child would like some additional practice,
we will host a "Knit In" at the Friendswood Public
Library on Saturday, October 13th, from 10:30 am until 1:00 pm.
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| Learn to Knit? Why 'Knot'? |
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Third graders will once again have the unique
opportunity of learning to knit for service when our knitting
club, Warm Up America!, begins October 4, 2007.
To date, we have knit hundreds of rectangles
for our patchwork afghans and baby hats, all of which we donate
to people in need. We meet once a week on Thursday mornings to
add stitches to our patches as we socialize with our friends.
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Mentors from Bales come back to help and volunteers
from the community assist us as we learn to perfect this lifelong
skill.
Since the second Thursday of October is our
third-grade Donuts with Dudes, there will be no club meeting
that morning. Instead, we will hold a "Knit In" at
the Friendswood Public Library on Saturday, October 13 from 10:30
a.m. until 1:00 p.m. for those students who are especially eager
to practice their new craft. Mentors will be on hand at this
gathering to help fix mistakes for, troubleshoot with. and encourage
our novice knitters.
The application for Warm Up America! will
come home to all third graders in Friday Folders on September
14. In the meantime, students can purchase their size 10 short
knitting needles at any local craft store. Marie's Yarn Shop
on Friendswood Drive will even give a 10% discount if you mention
that you're part of the Westwood Knitting Club. We can't wait
to get the ball rolling!
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