Tie-dye Day

Every May our 100 sixth graders and 40 adults (35 parents, 4 teachers, & 1 instructional aide/former hippie) spend a morning tie-dying T-shirts.  It's a hassle getting ready (getting to the art supply store across town to buy soda ash, and soaking all the shirts in it, and finding volunteer parent helpers), expensive (buying the shirts and about 10 bottles of powdered dye at $25-$35 a piece, plus gloves and zip-lock bags), and a ton of work (mixing dye, getting the area prepped, folding and rubber-banding shirts, and a lot of clean-up), but it is so worth it.  Everyone gets to be creative, but you don't have to be.  You can just go for it - free style - and that works too. There are no mistakes in tie-dye.  It's always an exciting surprise when you unwrap the creation, something like fireworks.  When we all show up in tie-day for our first day of EFT, everything is so bright and happy, you just have to laugh!

6th graders dying dyeing

My creation and a matching student