WoolElectronic book published by ipicturebooks.com

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All rights reservedText copyright © 2000 Nicola Edwards and Jane Harris Photographs copyright © 2000 Julian Cornish-Trestrail

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e-ISBN 1-59019-857-3Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available

ISBN 0-7136-5348-5

Exploring the scienceof everyday materials

Nicola Edwards andJane Harris

Photographs by

Julian Cornish-Trestrail

2

Look atthese thingswe’ve collected.

Theyare all madefrom wool.

3

Even the tipof my colouring

pen is madefrom wool.

4

Most wool comes from sheep.It’s the sheep’s springy coat.

This is raw wool. It‛sa bit greasy.

5

We’re looking at some sheep’s wool through a magnifying glass.

Can yousee lots ofcurly hairs?

6

Sheep are shornonce a year.Their wool coatsare washed anddried, thencombed toremove thetangles.

Don‛t worry,it doesn‛t hurt!

7

This wool has been dyed blue.A machine is twisting it intolong pieces of thread.

8

Look at all these balls of wool. Theyhave been dyed differentcolours and some threadsare thicker than others.

I‛m choosing a dark-coloured

ball.

I‛m choosing a light-coloured

ball.

9

Wool is woveninto clothesin factories.

You can also knityour own clothes

with knittingneedles.

I‛m helping my mumto knit a scarf!

10

I feel cold, soI’m putting on awoollen jumper.

It feels a bitrough on my skin.

11

My scarf issofter thanthe jumper.

It feels warmand smooth.

12

Wool is stretchy.

…and when Ilet go, it springsback into place!

I can pull it out…

I’m stretching my jumper and looking at it closely.

I can seeall the threads

of wool.

14

Let’s try pullingthe raw wool.It’s stretchy,too. It’s alsoquite strong.

I have to pull hard topull it apart.

15

Woollen clothes keep us warm.The tiny hairs in the woolhelp stop the heatescaping fromour bodies.

I feel really snugand warm.

16

We’ve just been outsidein the rain. My woollenjumper feels damp onthe outside but I’mstill dry underneath.

Damp wool smellsa bit funny.

17

My T-shirt is notmade from wool.The rain hassoaked through.

Yuk! I feelcold and wet.

18

I’m washing my woollengloves carefully.If the water istoo hot, mygloves willshrink!

The woolsoaks up the water.

The gloves feel heavy.

19

My glovesare clean anddry now.

They‛remuch lighter.

20

Felt is made of woolthat has been rolledand pressed togetherto make it at.

This piece of felthas been burnt,but it didn’tcatch re.

I can see theburnt hairs throughthe magnifying glass.

21

Fire ghters’ uniforms used to contain a special felt.

The felthelped protect

re ghters fromthe ames.

22

What shall we do with theseold jumpers? The wool is stillas good as new.

23

Let‛s unpick thewool so that we can

use it again.

My grancan knit me a new

pair of socks!

24

The aim of the Science Explorers series is to introduce children to waysof observing and classifying materials, so that they can discover thevarious properties which make them suitable for a range of uses.By talking about what they already know about materials from theireveryday use of different objects, the children will gain con dencein making predictions about how a material will behave in differentcircumstances. Through their explorations, the children will beable to try out their ideas in a fair test.

Notes for parents and teachers

pp 2–3

Wool was rst used for clothing thousands of yearsago. In 4,000 BC people began to make cloth fromwool by matting the wool together and spinning itinto thread. The Romans made togas out of ne wool.By the beginning of the fourteenth century, wool wasan important source of wealth in Britain.

Wool is chie y used to make clothing, but ask the children to look for other things that can be madeof wool, for example, carpets, paint rollers, slippers, tennis balls and curtains.

pp 4–5

Wool is a bre that comes from the eece of sheepand other animals including goats (mohair andcashmere), rabbits (angora) and llama (alpaca).The bres grow like hair from roots in the skin andhave a natural waviness or crimp. The hairs arecovered with tiny scales and with a natural greasycoating, called lanolin. Show the children a pictureof a magni ed wool bre so that they can see the scaly coating. Make sure the children always wearprotective gloves when handling raw wool.

pp 6–7

A sheep’s coat, the eece, is shorn in spring or summer. The eeces are washed to remove seeds,mud, dung and lanolin. Then the wool is dried and fedthrough a carding machine, which combs the wool so that all the bres are pointing in the same direction.This turns the wool into a at mat which is cut intonarrow strips. Spinning machines twist the strips intoyarn. The children could try carding some wool usinga comb or a hairbrush.

pp 8–9

Wool is highly absorbent, making it easy to dye.Usually it is dyed before being knitted or woven. Yarncan be knitted and woven by hand or by machine. The children could try out some simple knitting or weaving.

pp 10–14

The type and quality of wool can make it feel verydifferent – some wool feels soft and smooth againstthe skin, while other types feel itchy and scratchy. The children could compare garments made from differenttypes of wool, for example, a lambswool sweater and an Arran sweater. Wool is stretchy and springybecause of its natural crimp.

25

p 15

Pockets of air trapped between the wool bres stop the heat escaping from our bodies. By looking at a knitted garment through a magnifying glass, thechildren will be able to see the individual bres,helping them to understand how wool insulates.

pp 16–19

Give the children a selection of woollen clothes andother garments made from arti cial bres. See if theycan work out which are made from wool and whichare not. Do the clothes feel and smell different? Thechildren could test them for stretchiness, strength andabsorbency. Wool is water resistant and will hold alot of moisture before feeling damp, which is why wool coats help sheep to stay dry in the rain. Wool needsto be washed with care because the overlapping scalescan cause wool to shrink and mat together if washedin hot soapy water.

pp 20–21

Felt is matted wool. Until the early 1990s, wool wasused in re ghters’ uniforms because it does not continue to burn when removed from a ame. Can the children think of any other people who would needto wear similar protective clothing for their work?

pp 22–23

Wool is very durable and hard-wearing. Today thereare many arti cial alternatives to wool, includingacrylic, nylon and polyester. Sometimes these areblended with wool. Arti cial bres are cheaper tomake, but they lack many of wool’s special qualities.The children could look at the labels of a selectionof clothes and make a list of the different materials.

Find the pageHere are some of the words and ideas in this book.

colouring pen 3

damp wool 16

describing wool 4, 5, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14

felt 20, 21

re ghters’ uniforms 21

knitting 9, 23

recycling wool 23

rough wool 10

sheep 4, 5, 6

soft wool 11

stretching wool 12, 13, 14

washing wool 18, 19

woollen clothes 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 22, 23