Myth Makers - The Penelope Project

Next school year, I'll be taking a break from teaching Roman Technology to teach Myth Makers, my STEAM class based on classical mythology. (You can watch a presentation about this class here.) One of my favorite lessons to teach is weaving, in conjunction with the stories about Athena, the Greek goddess of household craft. Students consistently cite this lesson as one of their favorites. Each student creates their own hand-held loom out of cardboard and weaves a small piece of cloth. Why not take it to the next level?!

I'm spending my last day of school writing a grant to make large, ancient-style warp-weighted looms. The Penelope Project is a collaborative project that will have students build 8-foot-high looms to weave on in outdoor classrooms. While a couple of students weave, the rest of us can enjoy listening to mythological stories while we sit outside, basking in the sunshine. The looms will eventually be broken down and moved to our new school whenever it gets built.

You can read more about the project here.

And if you need free weaving lessons for your classics students, go here.