We've been covering the Civil War this term and today we read the story "Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt" by Deborah Hopkinson. It is a story about a young slave girl who works as a seamstress and dreams of freedom. She learned from other slaves of escaping North which motivated her to make a patchwork map of the area, her 'Freedom Quilt'. When she escapes, she leaves the quilt behind to guide others.
We decided to make our own freedom quilt! To save time (instead of sewing) we used cardboard as our background and added colored paper, paint and drawings. Our discussion was pretty interesting as we discussed how she followed the North star with her family to freedom. Last night, we got our sleeping bags and laid out on the patio to study the night sky and we noted the big dipper and the North Star. How amazing and awesome God's "mural" is in the sky! This was a great way to link learning about astronomy and an authentic story of how man can use the stars as a guide. Here's our quilt so far. Not quite sure what to do with it when we're finished! :)
