Story Quilts

To celebrate and honor Black History Month, students in Kindergarten through 2nd grade have been working on story quilts inspired by the famous Faith Ringgold!  She is a fabulous artist and author that students can relate to because her art is primarily based on stories she heard as a child.  Also, her images are playful, colorful, and enticing.  First, we read the story Tar Beach together as a class and discussed traditions of African American family life in the early 1940's in New York City.  Students shared ideas about how other things that Cassie Louise Lightfoot could fly over to claim as her own.  We imagined our own city, St. Louis, and shared ideas about what we would fly over to claim as our own, as well.

To begin the project, students were instructed to create a quilt-like frame around the blue construction paper, similar to Ringgold's quilts using scraps of wallpaper samples.  Next, students used sharpie markers and oil pastels to draw and color a city.  For this part of the project, students were encouraged to think about the city they live in or cities have visited and imagine what kinds of shapes, details and colors they would see in a large city.  For the finishing touch, students drew a self-portrait of himself/herself flying over their city.

 by Elise

 by Martha

 by Trayauna

by Noah