We read the beautiful, heart-wrenching book, The Rag Coat, by Lauren Mills. The book is set in an Appalachian coal town. The main character, Minna, is a young girl whose father dies from working in the coal mine. She is very poor and has no coat. Therefore, she cannot go to school in the cold weather. She yearns for a chance to go to school. Her mother, along with the other mothers in the town make quilts to earn money. They decide to quilt Minna a coat out of their old rags. Minna LOVES her coat, but the kids at school are quick to make fun of it.
Have your children tell you how it ends. It is really a sweet story with so many good lessons.
After we nailed down the setting, characters and themes we talked about making quilts. We talked about how difficult it is to make a quilt. We looked at various quilt patterns online. We loved the puppy and fish quilts.
I showed the kids a quilt my grandma made me out of old jeans. They enjoyed it and added their own quilt stories.
They then set out to design their own quilt patterns using pre-cut rags from my fabric bin. (Thank goodness I like to hoard things!)
We later used our quilt patterns to play a friendly game of bingo. We had a wonderful guest bingo caller, Teacher Shannon! We were so happy to have her. She knew just how to keep us all in line.
After bingo, I surprised the kids with their old t-shirts. While they were "quilting" I transformed them into adventure bags (just like the quilting mothers in our story turned the rags into a coat!). I hope they like them and use them to hold all their treasures. I've heard mixed reviews (from Vivian).
Next week, we are going to mine underground. (Actually it will be above ground;). I'll let you know if we find any diamonds.
Have a great week!
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