At Hiba Academy Nantong, children have lots of opportunities to get hands-on. Every experience in daily life, from clothing, food, shelter, and transportation, has the potential to open a new exploration journey. While exploring the joy of life, children can also gain useful knowledge and skills. These knowledge and skills can help lay a solid foundation for future learning and life. At Hiba Academy Nantong, children are not just playing and exploring, but also learning and growing.
Recently, the children in the EY3&4 set off on an exploration journey to become little tailors, starting from a small hair clip. After spending time independently making a "bù yáo," the children actively sought challenges and said“We want to make a set of our own Hanfu (traditional Chinese clothing)."
Making a set of Hanfu is not easy. Every step from selecting the fabric, designing the patterns, cutting, and sewing requires careful consideration and patience. For many adults, it is also a significant challenge. Let's see how our children overcome various difficulties to complete their Hanfu making.
Before making the Hanfu, the children searched and watched videos to learn about it. The children noticed some characteristics of the clothing through observation, such as the trumpet-shaped sleeves, the long skirt that reaches the feet, and the patterns on the chest. The initial design was quickly finalized, and the children fully immersed themselves in the production process!
Turning the Hanfu from a flat design into a three-dimensional structure is a big project. At first, the children estimated the length of the clothes and the position of the sleeves by draping the fabric on themselves based on their experience. Then came the first challenge: "How do we confirm the length and position during cutting?". The children quickly solved this problem by using tools such as pins, rulers, and markers to help themselves locate more accurately.
When cutting and sewing, another problem stood in front of the children: "How to join the fabric together?" Unlike previous building materials, white glue, nails, and tape cannot fix soft fabrics. The children explored more materials that could be used for connection: needles and thread, buttons, zippers... They successfully made the chest piece by their own efforts!
Next was to make the top and long skirt. Based on the children's previous life experience, the top needed an opening so that it could be put on. So, they began to think about the position, shape, and size of the opening. However, this time the production was not going smoothly. The opening of the top was too big, causing the clothes to slide off the shoulders when trying it on. The children did not give up. They reflected and tried again and again, and finally succeeded in using elastic bands to make the opening smaller.
Challenge after challenge, due to too many fittings the top began to come apart. It was evident that the hand-sewn stitches were not strong enough. The teachers pointed out a direction for optimization in a timely manner: the children had previously experienced using a sewing machine in the corridor and could try using the machine instead of hand-sewing. During free exploration time, the children gradually became familiar with the functions of the different buttons on the sewing machine. After many attempts, the children became more proficient in their operation, and they would occasionally stop the machine to confirm if the needle was sewing straight. The proficient children would also give clear guidance to their peers, demonstrating each step while reminding them of the things they needed to pay attention to, such as the functions of different buttons, making sure the fabric was laid flat, keeping fingers away from the needle, and slowly pushing the fabric forward. Every detail was covered!
Although teachers often discovered foreseeable problems during the process of making clothes, they chose to let the children discover, reflect, and solve problems independently through practise. In this process, children not only learned handcraft skills but also cultivated their patience and perseverance. They needed to try repeatedly and make continuous adjustments to finally complete a satisfactory work. Such experiences not only improved children's handcraft abilities but also exercised their confidence and creativity.
If you are interested in finding out more about how our Nursery can support your child in following their own interests and the benefits of learning based on these lives experiences, please reach out to our Admissions team.
Our next Open Day is 28th October – come and see for yourself the power of learning at Hiba Academy Nantong!
幼儿园开放日
Nursery Open Day
Date:28 October 2023
Time:09:30-11:15
Location:Hiba Academy Nantong 66 Haide Road Su-Xi-Tong Science and Technology Industrial Park,Nantong, Jiangsu
What to expect:
May Xue, Chinese Co-Head of Early Years and Lucy Trotter, Western Co-Head of Early Years, will present a general introduction of Nursery.
Campus tour: experience the excellent campus environment and state-of-the-art school facilities.
Q&A session: Answering your questions and exploring further topics of interest.
欢迎欢迎扫描下方二维码进行报名
Long press the QR code below