We are all different, and we can be whoever we want to be.
That was a life lesson that one student in Michelle Belasco’s third-grade class at Matthew Paterson Elementary took away from a recent classroom activity in honor of Black History Month. As part of the month’s celebration, the class read the book “The Patchwork Path: A Quilt Map to Freedom” by Bettye Stroud, a story of a young girl, Hannah, and her father who escape a life of slavery and make a journey to freedom using the Underground Railroad. Their guide: a patchwork quilt memento left with them by Hannah’s mother, which had stitched images that matched the secret signposts for stops on the Underground Railroad.
“We talked about how things that are passed on from our ancestors are things that we cherish,” Belasco said to her class. “So, we are going to make a classroom quilt.”
Students were able to choose a paper pattern square to decorate and then asked to write a story about their square and why they chose it. The only rule: pick the pattern that speaks to you.
The students' individual and unique pattern squares will be put together to create one cohesive quilt that tells a story of the classroom – and celebrates the diverse individuals that they each are.
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