Slide outline for Lesson 5.3, one day, thirteen slides. Slide 10 is the burn demonstration and slide 11 is its results; the no-flame version is in the notes under slide 11. Use whichever one the building allows.
What is this made of?
- Lesson 5.3
- Today you put your hands on six fabrics and figure out what they are
- Three tests: feel, stretch, water
- One teacher demonstration with a small flame, if the building allows it
Teacher notes
Image: six labeled fabric swatches laid out in a row on a table, letters A to F on masking tape.
Do now
- cotton, wool, silk, linen, polyester, nylon, rayon, spandex
- Four come from a plant or an animal. Four are made in a factory.
- Sort them into the two lists. Guess if you do not know.
- Two minutes
Teacher notes
Image: two empty columns headed "from a plant or animal" and "made in a factory."
The answer, and the tricky one
- Natural: cotton, wool, silk, linen
- Manufactured: polyester, nylon, rayon, spandex
- Rayon starts as wood pulp, which is a plant, but it is made into fiber in a factory. It counts as manufactured.
Teacher notes
Image: a cotton boll, a sheep, a silkworm cocoon, and a flax plant on the left; a factory with spools coming out of it on the right.
One of these is a plastic bottle
- A fleece jacket and a wool sweater
- Both keep you warm
- One is made from plastic. One is made from a haircut.
- By the end of today you can tell them apart with your hands
Teacher notes
Image: a fleece jacket and a wool sweater side by side, with a plastic bottle next to the fleece.
Natural fibers, what each one is good and bad at
- Cotton: soft, absorbent, breathable. Wrinkles. Shrinks. Slow to dry.
- Wool: warm even when damp, springs back. Itchy to some people. Hot water felts it.
- Silk: strong and smooth, costly. Water can mark it. Hand wash.
- Linen: coolest in heat, gets softer with age. Wrinkles the most.
Teacher notes
Image: four swatches labeled cotton, wool, silk, linen with a small source icon on each.
Manufactured fibers, what each one is good and bad at
- Polyester: strong, holds shape, dries fast, cheap. Does not breathe. Holds odor. Melts.
- Nylon: very strong and slick. Windbreakers and tights. Melts.
- Rayon: drapes like silk, from wood pulp. Weak when wet.
- Spandex: stretches and comes back, always blended. Heat destroys it.
Teacher notes
Image: four swatches labeled polyester, nylon, rayon, spandex with a small factory icon on each.
The class table
| Fiber | Warmth | Water | Wrinkles | Stretch | Cost and care |
|---|
- Fill this in on the handout as we go
- The fiber decides the care. The care decides how long the garment lasts.
Teacher notes
Image: the blank five-column table, large enough to read from the back.
Say that last line twice. It is the bridge to tomorrow's care label lesson.
The three tests
- Feel: rub it between finger and thumb. Smooth or rough? Warm or cool? Thick or thin?
- Stretch: pull gently across and let go. Does it come back?
- Water: one drop. Count to ten. Soaked in, beaded up, or spread out?
Teacher notes
Image: three small drawings, fingers rubbing cloth, two hands pulling cloth, and a dropper releasing one drop onto cloth.
Station rules
- One drop, not a puddle
- Swatches stay at the station
- Wet swatches go on the paper towel, letter side up
- Ninety seconds per swatch. Six swatches.
- Nothing goes in a mouth
Teacher notes
Image: a station setup photo: six swatches, a water cup, a dropper, a paper towel, and a sealed envelope.
The burn test, teacher demonstration only
- I hold the tweezers. The flame is on for under three seconds.
- Nobody stands up. Nobody films it.
- The extinguisher is for adults. PASS means pull, aim at the base, squeeze, sweep. Students get out and tell the teacher.
- Watch three things: what the flame does, the smell, what is left behind
Teacher notes
Image: a metal pie pan on a table with long tweezers holding a small fabric snip, and a taped line on the floor with chairs behind it.
Same fire rules, same words, as Lesson 1.3. Tell the class the day before that there will be a flame, so anyone who needs to sit out can tell you quietly.
Three fibers, three results
- Cotton: burns fast, smells like burning paper, soft gray ash that crumbles
- Wool: burns slowly, curls away, smells like burning hair, a black bead you can crush, often puts itself out
- Polyester: does not burn, it melts and shrinks away, smells sweet and chemical, leaves a hard bead
- A fiber that melts sticks to skin. That is why firefighters and welders do not wear fleece.
Teacher notes
Image: three small results side by side, gray crumbly ash, a black crushable bead, and a hard shiny bead.
If the building says no flame: play the same three burns on video, then run the wrinkle test (fist for ten seconds, rate 1 to 3) and make the melt-versus-burn point from the video.
Open the envelope
- Which letter was which fiber?
- Count how many you got right
- The one nobody gets is usually silk against polyester
Teacher notes
Image: a sealed envelope being opened with six letters and fiber names listed inside.
Pick the fabric for the job
- A winter hat
- A soccer jersey
- A dress shirt for a job interview
- A swimsuit
- Two pieces of evidence from your own tests. Use the words: absorbed, beaded, came back, stayed stretched.
Teacher notes
Image: four small icons, a knit hat, a jersey, a collared shirt, and a swimsuit.
3-2-1 exit card. Tomorrow: the tag inside the garment, which is where the fiber and the care rules are printed.