4th grade: Quilt design
Arts integration 3rd and 4th grade classes traveled to the Wharton Center at MSU to see a performance of "Laura Ingalls Wilder" featuring Arts Power National Touring Company. This performance was part of the Act 1 School Series, which all students in arts integrated classes are given the opportunity to attend. The classes enjoyed the production and the chance to see a live theatre performance. For some students, this was their first trip to the Wharton Center. Docents from Wharton Center visited the G.I.S.classrooms that attended the performance for a presentation of life for the Ingalls family in the 1800's. Mrs. McRae's class read "Little House in the Big Woods", and Ms. Brown's class read "On the Banks of Plum Creek" in preparation for the performance. In the story, Laura writes about learning to quilt. Her quilt design was the basic 9-patch. Her older sister Mary was working on a more complicated "Bear-claw" pattern. During arts integration time, Ms.Brown's students created quilt designs in paper and constructed a 9-patch quilt ("Laura's Quilt") and a bear-claw pattern quilt ("Mary's Quilt"). Student drew 2 9"x9" grids and chose 9 3" squares for each to make their individual squares. They then arranged the squares to create the two quilts.