Canada 150+ Intergenerational Quilt Project

Students are working with seniors from a local retirement home to learn how to quilt, acquire knowledge about historical events studied in class from people who experienced them first hand, build positive relationships with elderly members of our school neighbourhood as well as create a piece of folk art for our school that celebrates women's handicrafts and southern Ontario folk tradition. The students select iconic historical images from Canada 150+ years of history and depict them in the quilt to present the juxtaposition of Canada's identity over time and according to different groups in our society. Students have to research the event they depict, reflect on its meaning and significance to our national heritage and present what they learned at our unveiling ceremony for the quilt.

Update (July 4, 2017)

The goal of the project was to build positive relationships between youth and the elderly in our community. It was also to foster a respect in young people for women's work and women's history (a topic not covered in a non-tokenist way in really any Canadian history textbook I have seen) as well as to celebrate the artistry of quilting and the role it has played in local history and community building within the context of analyzing Canada's past so to build a better, more inclusive future.