Kantha for schools

A project for a class

A class needs a project that is cheap and uses things the school already has. Kantha uses cloth scraps that families can give. Pupils cut squares, photograph the cloth, choose a pattern, print a sheet and stitch it.

We know of no school that has tried Kantha with pupils. This page says what we know and what we do not.

What pupils can learn

This is a general list. It does not map to any national curriculum. A teacher knows best where it fits.

• Art and design. Colour, pattern and arrangement. A hand stitch, the running stitch.
• Maths. A grid of 5 squares across and 7 down, which makes 35 squares. A square cut 6 cm wide, with 4 cm showing and 2 cm covered by the next square. Checking a printed square with a ruler. The area of a square and of a panel.
• Sustainability. Cloth that would be thrown away gets a second use.

How a class can share a panel

One panel has 35 squares.

• One panel for the whole class. A class of about 30 can make one panel, with one or two squares each.
• A panel for each group. Groups of 4 or 5 can each make a panel. In a group of 5, each member makes 7 squares.

We have no measured time for a panel with a class. Try one panel yourself, or with a small group, and time it before you plan the lessons.

What you need

• Cloth. Clean scraps of cotton or linen, which families may give, and a plain backing cloth a little bigger than the printed sheet.
• Tools. Scissors, a needle and thread, and a stiff plastic lid for each group to make a template. An iron, for the teacher only.
• A device. One phone, tablet or computer with a camera for each group, or one for the class. The studio runs in a web browser.
• A printer. The sheet prints on A4 only. A panel is 28 cm tall at true size, so it does not fit Letter paper. If your school uses Letter paper, Kantha cannot print a true-size sheet for you today.

Privacy and the school network

• The studio has no accounts, no sign-ins, no adverts and no analytics.
• It collects nothing. Cloth photos, boxes and designs stay on the device and Kantha receives none of it.
• The rest of the website counts page visits with Plausible. The privacy page says what it counts.
• Ask the school’s network manager to allow kantha.app through the web filter.
• Pupils photograph cloth, not each other.

Shared devices

The work lives in the browser of the device that made it. If the device is shared, then:

1. Use the same device and the same browser each time.
2. Do not clear the browser’s data. That deletes the boxes and designs.
3. To keep or move a class’s work, save a backup file from the studio’s Menu (Back up or move to another device). The other device opens it. Opening a backup replaces everything on that device, so save a backup there first.

The printed sheet is the other way to share a design. We cannot share work between devices in any other way.

A first lesson

We suggest two lessons. Cloth is cut and photographed in the first, and the design and stitching come in the second.

1. Before the first lesson, ask families for clean, washed and ironed scraps of cotton or linen. Set aside stretchy, sheer and thick cloth.
2. In the first lesson, make a template from a plastic lid. The Help page shows how. Cut the squares 6 × 6 cm. Photograph each kind of cloth in daylight in the studio, and say how many squares of it were cut.
3. In the second lesson, each group chooses a pattern and the teacher prints the sheet at 100%.
4. Check one printed square with a ruler. It must measure 4 cm.
5. Lay the squares column by column on the backing cloth.
6. Stitch rows of running stitch.

Needle safety belongs to the school. Supervision, counting needles in and out, and the use of thimbles follow your school’s own rules. The Help page prints as a PDF for the class.

What we cannot promise

• A sheet for Letter paper
• A lesson plan, or a time for a panel
• An age range, or evidence from a class
• Class management tools, such as lists of pupils or marking
• Sharing work in any way except the printed sheet and the backup file
• Use without an internet connection
• An app in a store. The studio works in a web browser today.
• A mapping to any curriculum
• An accessibility statement

Where to start

Open the studio. It starts with a Sample box of real cloth, so a class can try a pattern before any cloth is cut. Then read the Help page. If you try Kantha with a class, please write to us at kantha@catsofkochi.com. We would like to learn how it went.

We offer this as a guide only. The decisions about your class belong to you.