Mrs. Attaya's First Grade QUILTS A Study of Patterns, Shapes and Relationships This page is under construction. Please check back for updates. Our study of quilts began with a visit from a quiltmaker - I brought quilts from home that I have made and shared them with the class. We talked about tools used by quiltmakers and learned about how quilts are made. We have enjoyed reading books about quilts. Children from our class have brought quilts from home to share with the class. We have enjoyed looking for patterns in the quilts and have been fascinated with the shapes used to form designs in quilts. PATTERNS: We made this quilt out of paper. Students used green and white squares to create four patch quilt squares. We alternated patches with frog drawings to create a class quilt. The students made these observations about our quilt: It is an AB pattern. The frog squares would be A and the 4 patch squares would be B. There is a pattern in the rows - 3 frogs, 2 frogs. The patterns go across the quilt and up and down. We can see diagonal patterns. If you begin at the bottom left corner of the quilt, the patterns get bigger as you go up and then they get smaller. Green forms a pattern across one diagonal line and white forms a pattern across the diagonal in the other direction. Mickey made a pattern on the sun rays of the sun in his frog square. I was amazed and excited about the sophisticated patterns that the children found and by their divergent thinking in this activity. We made individual 4 patch quilt squares out of fabric. The children used fabric crayons to draw our class mascot for one patch. They made green handprints for another quilt square. Frog fabric was used for the remaining patches. Each child used a needle and thread to sew the top two patches together and the bottom two patches together. We held our "quilting bee" outside in our courtyard on a beautiful fall day. Busy fingers, busy minds. We displayed them in the hall above our story, Froggy in First Grade.   GEOMETRY:  We made quilt squares using triangles. It was fascinating to see the many different designs that can be made using 4 black triangles and 4 colored triangles. Here are just a few of our discoveries: RELATIONSHIPS:  Historically, quilts have provided warmth, comfort and a link between people. Quilts are often made to commemorate a time or occasion. Quilts provide a a link between generations or between distant groups of people. We were in the middle of our quilt study on September 11 when the tragic events in New York and Washington DC touched our lives. We are creating comfort quilts to be sent to comfort children in New York. Home ~ Skills ~ Spelling ~ Special Events ~ Toybox ~ Sneak A Peek ~ Teacher Talk Pecan Creek Elementary School ~ Denton ISD This page created by Lin Attaya on 09-13-01 updated 10-02-01 My class keeps me in stitches!