Celebration Quilt

Big Idea: Celebration and Family

Grade: 3rd
21st Century Art Ed Approach: Modify Choice, Visual Thinking
Strategies, and Meaning Making
Created by: Ashley Sutter, Marcell Ramish, and Lawrence
Schaedler-Bahrs
Lesson Overview
Students will be able to share how their family
celebrates certain holidays and get a chance to know
what holidays their peers celebrate as well. Students
will first be exposed to various depictions of holiday
celebrations amongst cultures. After which, they shall
be given an activity in which they will use various
materials to create drawings reflecting their own
holiday celebrations. Students will then take all of the
classes different drawings on how they celebrate and
make a quilt out of it. At the end students will VTS
their classmates artwork and discuss how
cultures/religions celebrate in different ways.
Essential Questions
1. Why do people celebrate?
2. What are traditions?
3. How do celebrations with create
meaning within communal identity?
4. How do people celebrate?
Key Concepts
1. People celebrate different holidays
all around the world.
2. Celebrations give life meaning.
3. People celebrate traditions.
4. Celebration leads to meaning
making in art and discussion.
 Lesson Objectives
Content area 1 Literacy : learn and identify vocabulary words and how it relates to the big idea
of celebrations and family. Literacy would be assessed through memo writing based on
readings.
Content area 2 Visual Art : The students will (TSW) be able to . . . Create a drawing or painting of
how his/her family celebrates a certain holiday in their culture utilizing line, form, use of space,
and color. Tying these individual pieces together with yarn, students will also be making a
communal quilt in the same guise as the inspiration artist, Faith Ringgold.
Content area 3 Geography: The students will (TSW) be able to . . . relate to and identify different
holidays that are celebrated around the world and also be able to identify the countries where
these holidays are celebrated.
Vocabulary
1. Big Idea: The overreaching theme of something (in
this case art).
2. Celebration: acknowledge (a significant or happy day
or event) with a social gathering or enjoyable activity.
3. Community: a group of people living in the same
place or having a particular characteristic in common.
4. Culture: deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs,
values, attitudes, meanings, and religion acquired by a
group of people in the course of generations through
individual and group striv
ing.
5. Diversity: the inclusion of individuals representing
more than one national origin, color, religion, etc.
6. Tradition: the transmission of customs or beliefs from
generation to generation, or the fact of being passed on
in this way
-Definitions retrieved from Wikipedia.com
Readings: Discussion Activity
After having read the two assigned articles please answer the
following questions with your table on a piece of paper:

What are the pros and cons of letting a student be the artist
What does celebration mean to you?
What do you like to celebrate with your family?
From the reading what was the most interesting celebration
you read about and why?
Christmas Celebrations around the World
 Inspiration Artist: Faith Ringgold
Faith Ringgold is a painter, writer, speaker, mixed
media sculptor and performance artist. She
lives and works in Englewood, New Jersey.

Faith used to paint with traditional oils but she

abandoned those and instead started painting
acrylic on unstretched canvas with fabric
borders, a technique evoking Tibetan thangkas
(silk paintings with embroidery). With this
technique she makes narrative quilts

Faith Combines quilt making, genre painting, and

storytelling through images and hand-written
texts. Many of her artworks rewrite African
American art history, emphasizing the
importance of family, roots, and artistic
collaboration

Retrieved from: https://www.artsy.net/artist/faith-ringgold

Activity: Celebration Quilt
Students will grab a hole punched piece of paper and
are able to choose if they would like to draw or
paint what holiday they celebrate with their family.
Students also can choose if they want to decorate
their picture with glitter, gems, etc. There are no
restrictions here.

Once finished, students will collaborate and tie

together their artwork with yarn and form a
Celebration Quilt.

After the Celebration Quilt is formed students will

gather around the quilt and the teacher will
perform a VTS workshop with their students.
Materials Needed
Crayons
Markers
Colored Pencils
Water Color Paint
Paint brushes
White Construction Paper
Colored Construction
Hole Puncher
Yarn
Glitter
Gems
After Lesson Assessment
Now since you know a little bit more about
Celebrations and family, can you answer these
essential questions?

1. Why do people celebrate?

2. What are traditions?
3. How do celebrations with create
meaning within communal identity?
4. How do people celebrate?