Blues and Jazz, Black History and Quilt Unit Study Lesson Plan

This week we made a return trip back to the White Bluffs Quilt Museum to see the "Blues" exhibition. 

I'm just going to make it plain in case anyone was wondering, this little boy will take advantage of any chance he can get "the ladies" attention. At Allied Arts we walk by during Paint In after his music classes and he know "the ladies" have treats just for him. He says three words of Hindi to the sweet India waitress and he gets a free mango lassi, or a sample of some sweet curry. 

Why would the ladies are the quilt museum be any different?

They were not. He had jobs to do. He got to watch quilts being made and even was allowed to touch the "no touch" items.

Anyway, I had visited this exhibit previously on my own and knew that it was all blue so I packed blue supplies along with glue and scissors. We colored some paper blue ahead of time.

At the museum we cut "paper quilt squares" from construction, tissue, and blue printer paper. We glued the pieces to cardboard squares (these were actually from some fat quarters but cardboard box squares would work just as well).

At the museum we read two books. *Lama Lama Red Pajama had a quilt he sleeps with and Pout Pout Fish,  which takes place underwater and is blue. 

I didn't expect him to sit through the books but he did!!

We also read 

Quilt Alphabet by Lesa Cline-Ransome ABS James E. Ransome

Standing In The Need of Prayer - A modern retelling

*Lana Lama Red Pajama hip hop playlist  most of these read alongs are fantastic but a couple in this play list do have some language you may want to avoid. I'd listened to them ahead of time and had a couple favorites. There are a lot of read aloud a for this book on YT as well 

Lama Lama Red Pajama byAnna Dewdney

Pout Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen

Read and/or listen 

Weary Blues by Langston Hughes 

I'm high school I recited this poem while my dad played the saxophone. It was really fun

And listened to 

The Nothin' Blues from Music Together 

We actually listened to some Jazz favorites of my husband's rather than Blue's

Study

Gees Bend Quilters

I have a couple projects from teach art classes over the years and have seen a quilt exhibition by this famous community. 

Let me know if you would like to see more these lessons from my "Cultural Art Form Around the World" course. Several classes are in the You Tube playlist 

You can read the whole write up from the exhibition here.

Daisy 1 2 3 Book Toddler + Pre K Lesson Plan

Daisy 1 2 3

By Peter Catalanotto 

This is a fun and clever book. Kids will count and laugh their way through. 

Here are a couple extension activities for you and your littles.

Fun Topics to Expore Before, After, or With the Book

-Dalmations, or other dog breeds

-Comic book layouts (art and design) - each page has a creative and unique composition. See Daisy 4, 5, 7, 8, and 15. Draw the basic compositions to create your own comic

-magic tricks - 

-Foreign Languages 

-Practice counting to 20

-Sort items by number

-Create a calm down jar with various numbers of items in it 

Words To Known

-Peculiar - interesting 

-Tricks - magic 

-Spots - patter and place 

-Adopted - can use for great conversations about different types of families

Activities for Any Page 

-Point and find the number in the oval.

-Count the unique item. Bones, paw prints, fleas or find the “peculiar spot” etc.

-Talk about the “horizon line” 

Topic Specific Activities

1.What does the “peculiar spot” look like 

2. Make a name tag

3. Play instruments - try to play different instruments at the same time. You can do activities that require using one hand to cross the middle line. 

4. Try to learn to juggle. You can start with scarves or tissue.

5. Say “hello” in 5 human languishing. 

Ni hao, namastê, asalam alaikum, ola, and Hello 

6. Do the chicken dance

7. Learn about competitive sports - talk about the Olympics

10. Have a dance party - be goofy or learn a dance. 

12. Read Cinderella with Dogs by Linda Bailey and Freya Hartas. Also count the glass slippers

14. Talk about constellations or create your own connect the dot. 

17. Create your own treasure map or create a time capsule.

Have you read this book? 

Similar activities will work for other books by this author including Matthew A. B. C. and Kitten Red, Yellow, Blue.