created by Keshav120 in Grade 3 at
Cliff Valley School
from school project "3rd Grade Paper Quilt Collage"
art id #101623910
About this School Project (3rd Grade Paper Quilt Collage)
Students in 3rd grade read the story Belle, The Last Mule at Gee’s Bend: A Civil Rights Story. It is inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s visit to Gee’s Bend, Alabama in the 1960s:
(Synopsis from
Amazon.com): “When African-Americans in a poor community— inspired by a visit from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.— defied local authorities who were trying to stop them from registering to vote, many got around a long detour on mule-drawn wagons. Later, after Dr. King’s assassination, two mules from Gee’s Bend pulled the farm wagon bearing his casket through the streets of Atlanta.”
Students learned that the women of Gee’s Bend, have created hundreds of quilt masterpieces dating back to the early twentieth century. These quilters started by painstakingly taking apart old clothes by hand so as to use the ENTIRE piece of fabric. Third graders are creating paper quilts in honor of the women of Gee’s Bend, using geometric and/or organic shapes.
