Yoga with Dom, Quilter Kaye, and Andy's Cans!

Kindergartners began the morning listening to a story entitled, The Patchwork Path: A Quilt Map to Freedom by Bettye Stroud that told of the journey of a little girl and her father to freedom.  It included several quilt patterns historically said to be a "secret code" of the "Underground Railroad."  The Underground Railroad was a system established by slaves and sympathetic free men and women to hide and transport southern slaves up north to freedom.  This "railroad," however, was not a real train system but a  secret passageway of safe houses located sometimes as far north as Canada.   The quilts were said to have been draped on clotheslines and fences to give escaped slaves signals of "safe" houses that promised the possibility of a ride, a meal, a warm bed, and/or a change of clothes.   The quilt blocks were said to be actual map codes of trails, landmarks, and compasses.  "Crossroad", "drunkard's path" , "North Star" and "bear claw"  were names of just some of the secret code designs.  The validity of the actual use of these quilts is still up for debate due to a lack of written documentation by actual participants.

We also welcomed our new Kindergarten friend, Gavin today!!!! 

Yoga Fridays with Dominique

It's good to have friends, especially friends with special gifts and talents.  My friend Dom, who is also an educator, came by on Friday to share another one of her passions, Yoga.  She engaged the Kindergartners immediately with breathing exercises and soft mats.  She demonstrated various poses that the Ks readily imitated.  Some kids commented that they had previous yoga experience themselves or had observed their Moms.   We even played a "Simon Says" pose game before ending our session. What a relaxing and peaceful way to begin the day!

Quilter Kaye's Amazing  Quilt Collection including the Underground Railroad Quilt Blocks!


My other very good and very talented friend Kaye came in to bring just a small sampling of her enormous quilt collection.  Kaye is actually a quilter herself and belongs to several quilt guilds in the Michigan area including Ann Arbor and the Great Lakes Quilter's Guild.  She also teaches quilting classes.  She showed showed intricate stitch patterns, delicate embellished beading, and exquisite design.   Backs of quilts were as skillfully done as the fronts. Kaye also brought in several beautiful children's books about quilts and the Underground Railroad and Mrs. Carpenter's class was impressed that she even had one by their "Author's Study" pick, Patricia Polacco.  


Kaye  revealed to us the possibility that some of the quilt block designs may  not be authentic or even used in the actual Underground Railroad system universally due to a lack of documentation by actual railroad participants.   This omission may have been due to a strict  adherence to the utmost discretion and secrecy.  Also, some block designs may have only be exclusive to a certain town or region.  






Kaye displayed examples of the "Underground Railroad" block, the  "Bear Claw", and the "Log Cabin."   It was nice to see some of the same designs that were depicted in the story we read earlier.   Kaye also shared two African mask  quilts (how appropriate for Teacher Elaine's mask E.B. participants) and Kaye even surprised me and brought in the quilt that she and I had the pleasure of helping to design.  (Five of my own greeting card designs appear on it.)    We  look forward to Kaye's return to show more of her quilts and to teach an actual quilting  lesson. 

Even our SK Floor tiles use  patterns similar to quilt squares.  This one represents "crossroads". 

ANDY (WARHOL'S) CANS Can !

And they did aid in our Math activity on Friday afternoon!  Kindergartners teamed up with a partner to sort cans by size, ounces, and labels.  We predicted the can that weighed the most then discovered that things aren't always what they seem.  (Some cans, although larger in size contained less in volume.)  We practiced counting by 2's and 5's and then tallied up 50 cans in all.  We are half way to our goal of 100 cans.

Later, Kindergartners tried their hand at making their own quilt square "codes" using colorful paper, markers, and glue.