Patchwork of Places & Poetry: N. Hagerty, South Lyon, MI

Welcome To Our Patchwork of Places
Nancy Hagerty Grade 1
Bartlett Elementary School
South Lyon, MI

One of the most important places to a first grader is their very own school. Our school spends a great deal of time promoting school safety, so we began our study of important places by reading Margaret Wise-Brown’s, The Important Book. We brainstormed a lot of reasons that our school was important. Then we wrote a class poem about the most important things about our school.

We began reading several books about quilts. I brought in several of my quilts in various stages of completion and the children found the basic shapes hidden within the patterns and designs. The students were fascinated by the way different basic shapes could be manipulated to make new shapes.

By using our pattern block shapes, the students practiced making designs on paper. I gave each student a 7-inch square of black construction paper and various colored paper pattern blocks. The students each created the blocks you see in our quilt.

As we learned about inflected endings, students got plenty of practice adding ing to the words in our various class cinquain poems about each of our specials.

The important thing about Bartlett is that we are safe. We are learning. We help each other. We are considerate. We practice fire drills. We follow the rules. We take care of our school. But the important thing about Bartlett is that we are safe.	BARTLETT B- best A- appropriate R- ready T- teachers L- learning E- experiments T- terrific T- tests
Gym Mr. Nowicki kicking, playing, exercising I feel hot and sweaty. Gym	Art Mrs. Wright painting, drawing, coloring I feel like an artist. Art
Music Madame Z. singing, clapping, dancing I feel like playing an instrument. Music	Library Mrs. Head reading, browsing, listening I feel like getting lost in a book. Library
Cafeteria Lunchroom Supervisors eating, talking, drinking I feel hungry. Cafeteria

Using quilts across the curriculum has been a wonderful and fun avenue of learning. Comprehension and appreciation for literature has increased as students have begun to learn how to make text to self connections with many of the books we read. Our class is also attempting text-to-text connections as we compare and contrast the different books/quilts we have read about, as well as, the other quilts from the project participants.

Books about quilts that we have read thus far:
Luka's Quilt by Georgia Guback
The Rag Coat by Lauren Mills
Something from Nothing by Phoebe Gilman
The Ticky Tacky Doll by Cynthia Rylant
The Quiltmaker’s Gift by Jeff Brumbeau
Q is for Quilt: An ABC Quilt Pattern Book by Gwen Marston
Various quilt-making how-to books

Benchmarks:
Math
Students will explore ways to combine, dissect and transform shapes.
Language Arts
Students will write using various forms, for purpose and audience beyond the classroom.
Social Studies
Students will identify regions in their immediate environment and describe their characteristics and boundaries. Students will describe characteristics of members of the classroom, then compare themselves with children from other places and categorize differences as cultural or natural.

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A Patchwork of Places and Poetry