In social studies class, my 2nd grade students learned about immigration. With help from their parents, they created family trees, discovering that their ancestors immigrated from different Eastern and Western European countries and even from as far away as Taiwan. Since their classroom teacher, Ms. Kaplan, read aloud Patricia Polacco’s The Keeping Quilt to kick off the unit, I decided to extend the classroom learning by having the students create digital quilt patches about their ancestors’ country.

First, the students searched theWorldbook Online encyclopedia to gather some current quick facts about their country, including population, currency, language, climate, capital city, and some interesting facts of choice. They recorded the information on an organizer.

Students then used Wixie by Tech4Learning to create the digital quilt patches. I had created a template with a stitching-like border and “assigned” it to each student in the class. Since Wixie is cloud-based, they simply opened the template in their accounts to design their quilt patches. Students used the researched information and added visual representations for each bit choosing from the Wixie built-in sticker and photo library.

This was a fun little extension project that allowed kids to hone their information and digital literacy skills. My students are always excited when I pull out the laptop cart or bring the iPads. And even though this particular group has worked multiple times with Wixie already this year, they love the creativity it allows them to pour into their work.