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DENTON – In celebration of America’s 250th birthday, you can experience an art and history exhibit in one at Denton’s Museum of Rural Life – courtesy of Katie Tribbett’s 5th grade Gifted and Talented group at Denton Elementary School.
“The museum reached out to Denton Elementary School to see if they could have 5th grade students create a project to celebrate America's 250th anniversary,” Tribbett said, “ I love having students create open-ended craft projects that relate to instruction, so I developed the idea to have them research someone from the American Revolution and write a paragraph.” Once the research and writing piece of the project was complete, the students tapped into their creative side by creating a quilt square to accompany their respective patriot’s story.
The individuals whose lives are featured in the display came from a pre-determined list compiled by Tribbett, in which she tried to “make sure that various types of people were represented in the list so they could see that men and women from different races and economic status could all have an impact on something as big as the American Revolution.” This challenged the students to think beyond the more well-known names and curate a newfound appreciation for those such as “Phillis Wheatley, who is the first African American poet to have a book of her work published, or James Armistead Lafayette, who was born into slavery but was able to successfully spy for the Continental Army.”
The quilt squares were designed by the students on paper, and then the students transferred their vision onto fabric. “I was completely amazed at what some of them came up with,” Tribbett said, “It allowed us to have conversations about the artistic concepts of abstract and concrete while conducting a research project.” Tribbett explained that the fabrics were donated by community members, which had the added benefit of teaching the students the art of repurposing and making do with what’s available. Some drew on their pieces to get the desired effect, and one student even taught herself to embroider.
Tribbett and her students alike worked for weeks through their short time allotments for the Gifted and Talented class, finishing their squares in late March. Their projects were then moved to the Museum of Rural Life, where a true reception was held on April 27. “Students were so thrilled to share their projects with their families…Parents were also excited to get to share in this moment with their children,” said Tribbett. She noted that the students were just as excited to share about their research and writing as the squares.
Even the unveiling of the students’ work served as a lesson in local history for the students, as well as their parents, “Many parents mentioned that they were not aware of the Museum of Rural life and they were glad to get to see all that it had to offer. The students enjoyed viewing all of the exhibits with their families and they got to learn a lot about Caroline County's history,” Tribbett said, “One thing that I have tried to explain to them through our lessons is that the history that we learn about in school are often things that happen right here where we live…I think anytime students can make historical connections to places they see everyday as they travel through town, the more realistic the events become.”
Tribbett is also proud in the project not just because of its obvious historical education value, but the real life lesson in perseverance that goes along with completing a first large, multi-faceted projects. “Each stage of this project from research, to paragraph writing, to completing the quilt square, required extreme attention to detail and determination. By seeing their finished project in the museum for the public to enjoy, they can see the value of hard work and that if you want something to be done well, you have to put a lot of effort into all of the parts. They also learned that…sometimes you have to stick with frustrating things to get a job done.”
The installment of the Gifted and Talented group’s work is available for viewing during the Museum’s open hours on Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
