Picture This – Art Exploration for Kids “Quilting Our Way to Freedom: How Quilts Helped Slaves Find their Way North”

“Come hear some fascinating stories about how quilts helped guide slaves to freedom along the Underground Railroad, then create your own story-quilt.” Kindergarten through 5^th grade.

· Have kids browse through Black History Month titles, and quilting books as they enter

· Discuss Underground Railroad (not a real railroad), Harriet Tubman, slavery & escape

· Read Under the Quilt of Night (PicBk Hopkinson)

· Show Show Way (Reading Rainbow DVD through end of book segment)

· Talk about creating our own “Show Way” – quilt of something important in our lives or family history

· Create “quilts” -- (Supplies: 11x17 tagboard, wallpaper squares, scrap fabric & felt, tacky glue) markers, crayons, magazine squares, glue)

· Showed the rest of Show Way while kids worked, continued with The Patchwork Quilt (also Reading Rainbow) (both Reading Rainbow episodes discuss family history, Show Way has a sensitive treatment of a grandmother who is a Holocaust survivor (her story of hiding has echoes of the Underground Railroad.)

· Additional possibilities: The Patchwork Patch (PicBk Stroud), Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt (PicBk Hopkinson) The Secret to Freedom (PicBk Vaughan), Most Loved in All the World (Pic Bk Hegamin ) or read another quilt-based underground railroad book.


Reading Rainbow: The Patchwork Quilt.