My sister has been teaching first grade this year. She asked me to help with a project of the six first grade classes tie-dyeing shirts to wear for their Field Day event next week.
So I spent two days at the school doing non-stop tie-dye with around 120 kids. Most of them chose to do ice dye, probably because of the samples we showed. That was a good thing, because the few that chose to use the squirt method made quite a mess since the bottles leaked a bit around the top.
The ones doing ice dye had to wear a dust mask, and some complained that they couldn’t breathe. They all wore gloves, although most didn’t quite get the concept that dye on the glove can still make a mess when you touch something else.
Some followed instructions and got great results. Others did not, but I hear that they all liked their shirts.
Niomie chose to do squirt dye, and drew the cutest little cat face for her shirt. I had to explain that I didn’t know how to make it come out so cute in tie-dye.
Here are some of the ones that stood out for me. These photos were before the final wash, and the shirts are still wet.
We had one tray that leaked overnight, leaving a blue stream running toward the wall (I guess the floor sloped). We also had an exciting time when we realized that the trays we had put out in the sun to melt faster were getting rained on. That batch looked slightly less crisp than the others.