EXTENDING THE UNIT
 
Language Arts Connections --
 
Create a short play or join in a Reader's Theatre about your  book.  Ask someone at your school to videotape it or take pictures with a digital  camera. If pictures are taken with a digital camera your teacher or a person  who works with technology at your school can help you make a power point program you can show others. You could show this or a video of your work at an Open House or some other event at your school. Just think! Your ideas and work would make someone else think about the ideas in the book.

S.C.O.R.E. CyberGuide - Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/sweet/sweettg.html

Activity # 1 - Descriptive Paragraph of Slave Quarters Activity # 2 - Make Your Own Map Using Patterns From Quilt Activity #3 - Choose a Routine and Calculate the Distance Activity #4 - Read the Poems and Write One of /Your Own Describing Slavery Activity #5 - Create a Wanted Poster of a Runaway Slave



Have the class create a class freedom railroad. Have each student write on a boxcar what freedom means to him or her.

Math Connections –
 
  When the class is making the quilt, discuss angles, perimeter, area, parallel  and perpendicular lines.  Each group is responsible for making squares  to fit their area.  The squares reflect the groups assigned book.   Your Art Specialist would be a great resource for this project.  You  can do the math in class, and have the Art teacher do the creative stuff in art class.  The quilt can be  presented at the luncheon and auctioned off – maybe the money could go to a guest speaker – Faith Ringgold?
 
  When reading Aunt Harriet’s Underground Railroad in the Sky, students  could figure out how many miles to their destination.  How long would  it take driving at 60 mph?  How fast do you walk?  How long would  it take you to walk?
 
  For MLK discuss the Montgomery bus boycott.  How far away are you from  the grocery store?  If you had to walk back and forth everyday, how many miles would you walk in a week?  A month?  A year?
 
  For Dinner at Aunt Connie's how many years of wisdom did these women contribute?   Add up their ages.  What was the average age of the people at dinner  – mean, mode?
 
  Tar Beach is set during the depression.  Find out how much bread, milk,  and cheese cost.  How much more do they cost today?
 
 
Math and Social Studies Connections--

Look at your U.S. map with state flags on it. Now get a Missouri flag and  place it in the center of the state line where Missouri meets Arkansas. Next,  place each state flag in the center of its own state. After that, check to  see if the scale on the U.S. map is in inches (U.S. customary) or centimeters  - cm (metric). Now, using a ruler and using the correct section of the ruler  (U.S. customary or metric), carefully measure the distance from each state  flag to the Missouri flag. Round these to the nearest whole. Now you will  need to multiply this rounded number times the number on the map scale. Do  this for each state. Record the distances for each state onto the map.
 
Science Connections –
 
Invention Convention--An invention often comes from a dream, or a vision.   There are numerous African American inventors.  At a center, place Inventor  Information cards ( you can make these from information you find in books,  or on the internet) have the students read these for inspiration.  With  materials (junk) you have collected let the students create an invention to make their lives easier.  These inventions can be displayed at the luncheon.

The slaves followed the “Drinking Gourd” to help them escape. The drinking gourd is also known as the Big Dipper. Find out why this constellation was chosen.


 
 
  Art Connections –
 
  See Math quilt idea.
 
  Studying Ringgold’s art as well as other African American artists and folk art would be appropriate for this unit
  .
 
  Music Connections –
 
I always like to incorporate music into my classroom.  I try to post  the artist on the board and listen to it on and off throughout the day.
 
Ask your music teacher to incorporate African American artists into her class.

Learn the song “The Drinking Gourd”

Music Ask your music teacher to help you learn the words and to sing Faith  Ringgold's own music, Anyone Can Fly (Words and music by Faith Ringgold).  Here is a site that might help: http://www.artincontext.org/artist/ringgold/songpg1.htm
 
Resources
 
Extended Reading List –
 

Martin Luther King Big Book Biography

Everett, Gwen. John Brown: One Man Against Slavery. Paintings by Jacob Lawence. Rizzoli,1993

Hopkinson, Deborah. Sweet Clara the Freedom Quilt. Paintings by James Ransome. Knopf 1993.

Monjo,F.N. The Drinking Gourd. Pictures by Fred Brenner. Harper and Row, 1970

Turner, Ann. Nettie’s Trip South. Illustrations by Roanld Himler. Macmillan, 1987

Winter, Jeanette. Follow the Drinking Gourd. Knopf, 1988

Hanson, Joyce  I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fall, Scholastic 1997  ISBN#0-590-849134

Portraits of Exceptional african American Scientist, Grades 4-8, Good Apple

Africa, Pirmary, Teacher Created Materials

Everything for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, K-5,  Instructional Fair


Extended Media List—

Ruby Bridges, Disney
The March on Selma, Disney
Remember the Titans,  Disney  *two possibly offensive words PG


Extended URL List –
http://www.angelfire.com/pa/marchonwashington/index.html
http://www.nycroads.com/crossings/
http://www.panynj.gov/
http://www.artincontext.org/artist/ringgold/default.htm
http://www.randomhouse.com/teachers/guides/invi.html
http://www.connectingstudents.com/worksheets/ss/ugrr.htm
http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/ringgold.htm
http://www2.lhric.org/pocantico/tubman/tubman.html
http://www.ed.uiuc.edu/ylp/Units/Curriculum_Units/95-96/Quilts_MBMartin/quilt_les6.html
http://www.readinglady.com/astudies/Faith_Ringgold/faith_ringgold.html


Dreams