Trip to Write On

Since the spring of 1989, the first graders from our school have been designing class t-shirts. My collection of shirts includes the names of every child I have had in my class for the last 23 years! It's quite a sight when I hang them all up outside our classroom. After making the design, we then go on a short trip to Write On, a local graphic design, printing and embroidering company, to see how our original artwork is transferred to our shirts. Owners Peggy and Don do a great job of setting up the tour, and their employees are very patient with the endless questions from curious first graders.

Here's this year's design.

The self-portraits are so cute!

And here's most of my collection. I'm going to need a bigger display area pretty soon!

Peggy and Don recently moved their business to a new location in Kenyon, a very bumpy 20 mile bus ride from Cannon Falls. They have a much bigger display area for all of their products.

The kids were great listeners as Peggy showed them some of the products available from Write On.

T-shirts,

caps,

jackets, mugs, mouse pads, blankets, sport bags, the list goes on and on! After listening to everything Don and Peggy told us, the kids were very excited to start our tour.

We got to see the huge sewing machines that could sew hundreds of stitches a minute.

The kids were really good about keeping their hands away from the needles!

Look at all those spools of thread!

This machine was sewing jackets,

and this one was for sewing designs on hats.

We learned that computers are very important. All of the artwork is generated by a graphic designer who works with a special computer program. The designs are put on discs, which are then put into the drive of the sewing machines. The information on the discs tells the machines what color of thread to use, and what design to make - amazing!
The kids in each group got to choose clip art to make a picture on the computer.The finished pictures were sent to the printer and are now hanging in our classroom.

Hmmmmm, which picture to choose??

We also got to see the vinyl sign making department. This machine could cut vinyl with a very sharp blade. We did not touch!

The kids watched closely as a special sign was made for our classroom.

"Cannon Falls First Grade"

Finally, we got to see our design being transferred to our t-shirts. Most of them were already done, but several shirts were left to demonstrate the heat transfer process.

Our design looked really weird because all the printing was backwards before it was transferred.

First the excess paper was cut off of the transfer and the shirt was pre-heated.

Then, the transper was carefully placed on the shirt and it was heated again for about 15 seconds.

There, the ink is transferred to the shirt!

It was really hot when it came off the press!

We got to feel it when it was still hot, and it isn't backwards anymore!!
Don met with us again at the end of our tour, he gave us a treat, and then we headed back to school, just in time for playtime and lunch. One of the kids summed it all up: "That was the best trip ever!" Thanks, Write On, for our awesome t-shirts and another great trip!

And here we all are in our brand new shirts! We'll be wearing these for our up-coming April concert, "Cock-a-doodle doo, Barnyard Hullabaloo," and also for our class trip in May! All of the first graders have white shirts this year, but each class has it's own color of ink (purple, blue, green, and red).

Once again, the kids couldn't resist making goofy faces. What a crew!