Dinner at Aunt Connie's
Activity
#1-- Language Arts/Social Studies
Read Dinner at Aunt Connie's House in small groups. Reread it.
As a group find the meaning of the following terms, proverbs, or phrases by using context clues or by using an online dictionary.
1. incident 2. boycott 3. inspired 4. activist 5. register (to vote) 6. founded 7. adviser 8. sculpt 9. oppressed 10. accompanist 11. aged 12. abolitionist 13. denied 14. protest 15. opera (singer) 16. cosmetics 17. "A good tree grows among thorns." 18. "Their lives speak more powerfully than any paintings could."
http://www.m-w.com/home.htm
Use a U.S. map. Review the story to find out which state each character was born in. Place a state flag on the birthstate of each character.
Book Task
Explain to the students that it is their responsibility to present this book to the class. They will be doing the teaching and the testing of the material. As a group they must decide on a method of presentation that will effectively get the information across to their classmates and demonstrate their knowledge of the subject matter.
Give the group a copy of the Rubrics.
Teacher will meet with this group daily to discuss progress.
Read Dinner at Aunt Connie's House in small groups. Reread it.
As a group find the meaning of the following terms, proverbs, or phrases by using context clues or by using an online dictionary.
1. incident 2. boycott 3. inspired 4. activist 5. register (to vote) 6. founded 7. adviser 8. sculpt 9. oppressed 10. accompanist 11. aged 12. abolitionist 13. denied 14. protest 15. opera (singer) 16. cosmetics 17. "A good tree grows among thorns." 18. "Their lives speak more powerfully than any paintings could."
http://www.m-w.com/home.htm
Use a U.S. map. Review the story to find out which state each character was born in. Place a state flag on the birthstate of each character.
Book Task
Explain to the students that it is their responsibility to present this book to the class. They will be doing the teaching and the testing of the material. As a group they must decide on a method of presentation that will effectively get the information across to their classmates and demonstrate their knowledge of the subject matter.
Give the group a copy of the Rubrics.
Teacher will meet with this group daily to discuss progress.
Activity #2 -- Technology/Language Arts
On-line Treasure Hunt
Use the links below to find the answers to the following questions:
Link One: http://www.artincontext.org/artist/ringgold/bio.htm
What is the name of the university where Faith Ringgold is a professor of art?
Where is this located?
Where is one place where Ms. Ringgold received an honorary doctorate degree?
What is an alma mater?
Link Two: http://www.artincontext.org/artist/ringgold/books.htm
How many books have been written about Faith Ringgold?
What are the names of the books?
How many videos have been made about her and her work?
What are their titles?
Link Three: http://www.artincontext.org/artist/ringgold/faq.htm
What does Faith Ringgold use to write on her quilts?
How many quilts has Faith Ringgold made?
Link 4: http://artincontext.org/artist/ringgold/story.htm
Read "How the People Became Color Blind." Send Faith Ringgold a message using the "Send a message" page. Ask your teacher to review and help edit your comments before you send them.
What do you think it means in this story to be color blind?
Link Five: http://www.artincontext.org/artist/ringgold/images.htm
What is the name of the on-line reproduction from 1993?
Look at "The Dinner Quilt." Click on the picture to make it larger. Now look at "Church Picnic." Click on it to make it larger. How are these 2 quilts different? Name at least 3 ways they are different.
View and enlarge all of Faith Ringgold's quilts. Which one do you prefer? Why?
What do you notice about the outside edges of all Faith Ringgold's quilts?
Activity 3
-- Math
1. Working as a group, determine how long each of Faith Ringgold's characters lived. When you do this you are creating and solving word problems. Do this by subtracting each person's death year from her birth year. The difference will be how old that person was when she died, or how long she lived.
2. Round each of these 12 numbers to the nearest ten.
3. Add all the rounded numbers together. This number represents the total number of years these 12 women spent trying to make their dreams come true for themselves and all of us today.
4. You just completed a 3-step word problem for each character! Hurrah! Good for you! Pat yourself on the back for a job well done!!!
1. Working as a group, determine how long each of Faith Ringgold's characters lived. When you do this you are creating and solving word problems. Do this by subtracting each person's death year from her birth year. The difference will be how old that person was when she died, or how long she lived.
2. Round each of these 12 numbers to the nearest ten.
3. Add all the rounded numbers together. This number represents the total number of years these 12 women spent trying to make their dreams come true for themselves and all of us today.
4. You just completed a 3-step word problem for each character! Hurrah! Good for you! Pat yourself on the back for a job well done!!!
Activity 4-- Art
Working in groups or alone create 12 place mats about this book, one for each character. Decide who will make which character, or what groups will make them. You may use any idea from the book, activities you already completed about this book activity, or the sites you visited on the Internet. You might want to write a short paragraph summarizing the book and write it neatly in the place mat, or you might want to make a drawing that shows what you learned from this book. You might even want to write an epitaph for the 12 characters, or think of some other way to express your feelings about this book. You may use any medium you choose (colors, markers, colored pencils, fabric, felt, yarn, etc.). Wouldn't it be nice to have one place mat for each character? These place mats will be used to set a place for each of the 12 women at our dream luncheon so they can "attend" our luncheon.
Using a quilt template, make a quilt square about your favorite character in Dinner at Aunt Connie's. This will be used to make a large quilt at the end of this unit.
Dreams