"Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt"

Black History Month, or National African American History Month, is an annual celebration of achievements by black Americans and a time for recognizing the central role of African Americans in U.S. history. Since 1976, every U.S. president has officially designated the month of February as Black History Month.

Today, we are going to enjoy the story, "Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt." Slavery has separated 11-year-old Clara from her mother, but at the new plantation, Aunt Rachel manages to get her out of the fields and into the Big House as a seamstress. There Clara listens, and learns.

This powerful story, told in conversational dialect and illustrated with beautiful paintings, is based on a little-known chapter in the history of the Underground Railroad, in which quilts were made to provide secret codes to slaves escaping north.

In the story, Clara learned how to sew and she made a quilt with a secret map sewn in from scraps of fabric. Her map showed the slaves what to look for on the path to freedom.

Now, it's your turn! Follow the steps below to create your own quilt square.

1. Cut a piece of construction paper so it is square.

2. Tear pieces of colored construction paper.

3. Organize your ripped up pieces on the square to include symbols and pictures that provided information for the slaves of the Underground Railroad. Think about today's story, "Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt." What did you learn about the Underground railroad? What symbols would work best on your quilt square?

4. Finally, glue the pieces down on your square.

In the forum below, please share your quilt square. It will be exciting to see our class freedom quilt at the end of the day.