This quilt began a journey through several schools in Wisconsin and then traveled to Michigan.
Quilt Visits Wealthy School
It was a little odd to have a visitor that couldn’t walk or talk out loud, but Quilt still was a hit with the Third Graders at Wealthy Elementary School in East Grand Rapids, Michigan. Quilt arrived on a weekend and sat all alone in the box until Monday afternoon. You see, the Third Graders have Art, Music and Gym on Monday mornings and only are in their homeroom for attendance and lunch count.
Once afternoon came, Quilt came out and was welcomed with a Class Meeting. This is when Mrs. Anderson’s class sits in a circle and discusses how school is going and how to solve problems that might be making it hard to learn in or out of the classroom. Well, we talked and talked about the beautiful quilt. Where did it come from? Who made it? What should we do with it?
The class decided first to read each square and discuss its meaning. The children learned all about the Iditarod and about the character traits needed by the mushers and dogs to do it. Guess what? All of the traits are things that can help us succeed in the classroom and in life. With all of its beautiful colors, artwork, and messages, the Quilt was easy to understand even if it didn’t talk out loud. Next, the class decided to vote on which square was the class favorite. The winner was the bottom right hand square about the Aurora Borealis, the beautiful Northern Lights. We agreed that we didn’t know anything about them and we are going to research to find out what they are. Next, the class decided to use Quilt for a review of something we didn’t do so well on earlier this year-area and perimeter. We remembered that area is measured in square units-easy-just count the squares. Perimeter was a little less fresh in our brains. After quite a few mistakes, we finally remembered that we could count each line segment (unit of length) along the outside of Quilt. Quilt felt much better when we finally got its measurements down correctly.
Finally, we decided Quilt was too beautiful to keep to ourselves, so we sent it on a little journey right in Wealthy School. Quilt visited each of the other two Third Grade classes and was welcomed warmly by all of the students. Now, after viewing Quilt, all the Third Graders have learned about the Iditarod and are looking forward to following the race come March. We are sad to say good bye to Quilt, but can’t wait to hear about all of its travels as the year goes on!
