The Quilt of States

Last year our learners completed The Quilt of States. While every child in 4th grade must study all 50 states in The United States of America, not all 4th graders do it the same. A text book? Nah. Flash cards? No Way! A map? Nope.

At FitzIn our learners made a beautifully crafted quilt of the 50 states that took the entire year to complete!

Our children began this project by choosing a New England state to study. Where better to begin than our own home?

They recreated the flag, learned the state song, designed a replica of a major landmark, and learned many other facts about their state including, location, state bird, population and much more.

For every state that was studied the children were required to complete a research sheet and then, design and create a quilt square to represent that state.

Once all 50 states were completed, the children learned how to sew using a sewing machine. The learners put the quilt together in the order that the
states entered the union.

Now, Im not sure if you have made a quilt before, but the arithmetic that goes into that is no joke. We spent a whole day just figuring how big the squares needed to be, the pattern we would make, how many squares per row, how to get the most out of the fabric we had, the size of the completed quilt, perimeter, area, etc. Not to mention that budget for the project and how much all this would cost.

Through this project the children were engaged in math, literacy, research, history and geography. The also learned valuable lessons in the area of home economics, as well as persistence, hard work and teamwork!

Project Based Learning at its finest, encompassing all academic areas in one hands on, long term, engaging project. Check out their masterpiece!