Paper Quilt Squares.

Just wanted to share the Paper Quilt Squares that I did with my first graders... back in February! Oy, I am behind. The basics:

• Used 8.5 x 8.5" white copy paper as the base
• Gave students two 4.25 x 8.5" rectangles for a watercolor resist: one with warm colors, one with cool
• They were asked to draw geometric shapes and patterns with crayon (we went into detail about "geometric" as a vocabulary word) before painting
• We folded the rectangles and traced over our folds to create the triangles before cutting them out
• Glued down the triangles in an alternating warm-cool pattern

This unit opened up a ton of art topics: history of textiles and quilting, pattern, resists, shapes and all things "geometric". For next year I am going to create a visual that clearly outlines how to glue the triangles down... I found that either students "got it" and it was easy and obvious for them, while for some it was utterly confusing. I also would consider providing a photocopied grid for students to work within.

Happy (paper) quilting!