Quilt squares-remnants of fabric that by themselves are of little use, but sewn together, they become protection against cold, works of art, and expressions of individuals and the times they live in, achieving something that no one square could achieve.

Team members- individuals who, on their own, may be of little help in achieving a goal, but joined together for the common good achieve a goal greater than any one part could.

Quilt squares : Team members :: Join together : Achieve a Goal

An analogy for the race and for life 

There are seven traveling Iditarod Quilts visiting schools around the country this year. The squares are made by teachers who attended the Summer Iditarod Teacher Conferences or by people at schools who hosted quilts. My school has had two quilts to visit, one a couple of years ago, and the second one earlier this fall.

Quilt, as each quilt is called, hung in our school display case along with my sled, and we spent a couple of days observing Quilt and the sled, writing about each and designing our own quilt squares. Recently, after some lessons in word processing, students entered and formatted their sled paragraphs. This is a good way to practice formatting skills and following directions to format correctly. The next part of our activity will be to revise the quilt square designs and create a paper quilt on bulletin board paper. The students’ quilt square designs were inspired by the squares on Quilt in the display case, so designs include encouraging quotes, sleds, mountains, and dogs.

Keep checking www.iditarod.com on the For Teachers link for more Quilt postings.

Mushing on,

Martha