Thursday, April 25, 2013

Underground Railroad Quilts

We are in the middle of our Civil War unit, my FAVORITE unit! I love teaching history and this is my favorite part of the year. Today, we read and talked about the Underground Railroad. My students were very interested and asking lots of great questions. We read the book Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt by Deborah Hopkinson. This is a great story about Clara creating a quilt/map that leads to the Underground Railroad.


After reading we discussed how quilts were used along the Underground Railroad as secret codes for the escaped slaves. My students then created their own secret code quilts using the site Pathways to Freedom. The site shows you examples of patterns that were used and then lets you create and explain your own quilt. This was a quick and easy activity that went great with the book.

1 comment:

  1. We are also in the middle of our study. We are doing a novel study on a book about Harriet Tubman and this is one of the connections stories I read (along with Follow the Drinking Gourd). My students LOVE this unit and so do I!!!

    Lisa
    Super Pig and Tyrant King

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