Class cleans up with soap making
—Courtesy photo Sandpoint Middle School students in the Lifeskills program learned how to make felt soap Thursday.
SANDPOINT — Sandpoint Middle School students in the Lifeskills Program enjoyed learning how to make felt soap last week.
Lori Stone, lifeskills teacher and occupational therapist, and Meredith Evensen-Lynch, OTR/L, collaborated to create a project that would facilitate the outcomes of motor planning, sequencing materials, hands on sensory and a same day start to finish project, suitable for gift giving. The project agreed upon was making felt soap.
Nadya Echt, the workshop director from the Woodman’s Shop in Bonners Ferry, went to SMS on Thursday to show the students how to make the 100 percent wool-covered felted soap. She brought in color choices for the wool and homemade natural soaps and instructed the students in cutting and wrapping the wool around three-inch square soap bricks. Each student chose the color and fragrance that appealed to their preference. The unique feature of felted soap is that it is made with 100 percent wools so there is no need for a washcloth or loofah sponge. As the felted soap bar is used, soap suds come right through the wool and will continue to shrink around the bar of soap until the user is left with a little scrubby — perfect for use during cleaning.
Echt taught the students that the wool they used is a natural, antifungal item and since it was natural it helps prolong the life of the soap, exfoliates dead skin and smelled luscious. The soaps were the right size to fit in the palm of the student’s hands and made washing fun.