BLOSSOMS-Our Middle School Class
The Blossoms class is made up of grades 6-8. We focus on project-based learning and work with the community once a week.
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Below is an example of our Project Time Unit from Spring Semester 2026.
The Blossoms teacher, Ms. Grace, posts updates for the parents in the Band App so they know what's going on day to day. This is a snapshot of those posts.
CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT PROJECT
January 13
We had a great week returning to school. I really enjoyed being back with your kids.
We began the new year and new semester by talking about resilience. I explained that resilience is the space between not knowing and knowing something and how long you can sit with those uncomfortable feelings (frustration, negative self talk, anger, disappointment etc).
We also talked about how practicing resilience doesn't mean you have to work at it for hours. As a matter of fact, practicing for 10-15 minutes consistently is more effective than 1 hour sporadically.
To practice our resilience, I am teaching the Blossoms how to knit. I'm an avid knitter and taught myself about 19 years ago so it's been really fun and challenging to share one of my favorite hobbies. There's no picture of your kids knitting yet because I'm busy helping them.
I think it would be super helpful if you also talk about resilience and practice them at home.
We also started our new project called Threads of History. We are learning about the civil rights movement through data analysis (math) and will eventually make a quilt block.
To start us off, we:
- shower segregation and integration on a hundred chart
- talked about the color wheel and what complementary colors are (colors opposite of the color wheel)
- used complementary colors to create a collage (which is a precursor to quilting)
- used the collage to show segregation through complementary colors and separating them.
January 14
This week has already been really busy and productive.
In math, we:
-proved that the idea of "separate but equal" was actually not true during the 1930's by looking at actual school funding data in Georgia
-used the school funding data to refresh our memories on how to create a bar graph
-played around with the scale of the graph to see how it changed the way the data looks
-used the school funding we calculated to "purchase" basic needs for both a white school and a black school
-developed a deeper understanding of the consequences of the lack of funding in black schools by having to make sacrifices on basic student needs (shorter school year, no heat during winter, sitting on the floor instead of desks and/or overcrowding)
During writing and project time, we:
-try to figure out which set of Jim Crow laws were real **spoiler alert** they were all real
-used the same set of laws to develop a definition for what Jim Crow laws were
- looked at primary sources and Mark Bradford (a contemporary mixed media artist) artwork to help us examine and develop a deeper understanding of the effects of Jim Crow laws
-learned how a teenager inspired the bus boycott
-began planning for a Mark Bradford inspired collage using grids and color theory that would express how it would have felt to be on a bus before the segregation laws were struck down
Note: I have chosen depth over skimming for this unit. This means that we are not going to cover every single event and every major historical figure during the Civil Rights Movement.
Instead, we are going to look at a few key moments and examine them through the lens of math/data, writing, stories, primary sources and art.
I strongly believe that this approach will help the Blossoms develop a deeper understanding of the movement, the inequality, the courage and the reasons that pushed folks into fighting for a change.
This means that you may find that your kids may not know everything about the movement. Please know that this was a deliberate decision on my part.
There is a lot of challenging history to cover and your kids may be upset by it. I will do my best to approach this with honesty and empathy for the history and for your kids' needs. My aim is to humanize this part of our history by presenting facts, real data, factually accurate stories and primary sources and let your kids develop their own understanding. This is the heart of inquiry learning and the best way I know how to help develop empathy.
January 22
On Tuesday, we read some sample letters from freed slaves wanting to move north. They were so powerful!
The kids described what they thought each writer felt, highlighted part of the text as evidence and verbally made their case to the class to "prove it."
I always enjoy how the kids focus both on developing empathy (trying to understand the writer) and learn practical skills that will help them throughout their learning (interpreting, providing evidence, speaking in front of others).
January 27
Playing a bit of catch up:
In the past couple of weeks, we continue to use actual data and primary sources to disprove the idea of "separate but equal" during the Jim Crow era.
After creating a budget with a much smaller budget for black students, the Blossoms created blueprints for a fully funded white classroom vs a black classroom. Then we looked at actual photos of classrooms from that time period.
My hope is that the Blossoms can form their own understanding through looking at this time period through the lens of math, history and art.
Last week, we calculated the inequality that black farmers faced by calculating earnings for sharecropping on a cotton farm. Again, all the numbers and scenarios I provided were historically accurate.
This week, we are shifting from school and salary inequalities to travel restrictions African American folks faced. To start off, we looked at the realities of how dangerous it was to travel by looking up different routes with this link. If you are curious, it is a really interesting website. I would also suggest asking your kids to tell you about Green Books.
January 29
This week's focus was on the challenges of travel during the Jim Crow era. Every group was given an envelope of cash (it was fake). The Blossoms very quickly realized that they can't afford the trip so we had to get creative. In the end, no one was able to afford a trip from Chicago to Memphis without going into debt.
We also have new reading buddies today. Ms. Stevie and I tried something new. We began reading buddies with a quick get to know you game. It was really lovely to hear the partners chatting with each other.
Finally, I had a talk about some of the reasons why we go outside, why there's no cell phones at school and why we are mostly analog. I basically recreated the video at the end. It's worth watching and re-iterating to your kids when you don't want them to be on a device or to play video games all day.
Also, we are going to St. Vincent DePaul food pantry tomorrow since we couldn't go last Friday. Bloom shirts or sweatshirts are encouraged but not required. I reminded the Blossoms how the cold weather can be extra difficult for families who are already struggling with food insecurity and helping at the food pantry can be our way of spreading kindness. I would love it if you could also reinforce that message at home. I like to say, your effort and attitude make all the difference.
I have invited two experienced knitters to come help me teach the Blossoms knitting tomorrow afternoon.
We were able to go outside for a bit for recess today. Please have your kids bring their winter clothes (coats, snow pants, boots, gloves, hats and perhaps warm socks).
January 31
Even though we had a small group of Blossoms yesterday, we were really productive!
The tasks we accomplished were:
1. Re-packing bottles of water
2. Re-packing ketchup
3. Re-packing freeze dried skittles-Yes...you read that correctly. I circled the boxes of smaller bags of freeze dried skittles we packaged so you can get a sense of how much we packed though that's not even all of it!
4. Made Valentine decorations for folks living in the tower, which are apartment buildings near downtown Bloomington. Many of the tower residents are unable to leave so the SVDP food pantry delivers food and other essentials to them once a month.
February 1
We will be walking to the bus stop and back tomorrow so we can have a teeny tiny idea of what it was like for all the folks who walked during the Montgomery bus boycott. Please make sure your kids have comfortable walking shoes, their coats, hats and gloves. It would also be great if they have their backpacks. We are going to fill them with books for our walk. We are not going to take the bus. The walk to and from the bus stop is about a mile. Since we will be using data to quantify how hard and how far people had to walk, the one mile loop is a good entry point for our data analysis.
Also, an ISU grad student studying art education will be hanging out with us tomorrow morning until lunch time. Their are interested in potentially teaching/helping us since their area of expertise is in fibers and quilts. Please let your kids know.
February 3
Our walk to and from the bus stop yesterday was a great way to kick off understanding the magnitude of dedication required for the Montgomery bus boycott.
I assigned a standardized measurement that approximated the load that protesters typically had to carry. To recreate that, we carried chapter books in our backpacks.
Today, we calculated how much energy the 1.2 miles took. We also calculated how many miles folks walked during the 381 days of protest. We visualized the number of miles by using unifx cubes. Tomorrow, we will turn those cubes into a paper chain as a way to honor and remember the tenacity of the protestors.
We also read Boycott Blues, a beautiful lyrical book by Andrea Pinkney. As we read the book, we used wooden manikins to model increasing degrees of tiredness.
This will lead us to create some prototypes for appliques on our quilts.
On a different note: We are going to the Normal Public library on Friday morning. Afterwards, I would like for us to go to Coffee Hound. I thought a fun outing could help us combat winter blues. We will be back in time for lunch. Mr. Gary will be coming with me. If you are ok with your kids purchasing a non coffee drink and/or a pastry, please send $15-20 with them to school on Friday. It's also completely fine if they don't want to order anything.
Lastly, we are going to University Galleries next Wednesday morning to learn how to embroider. We will be back in time for lunch. I sent home a waiver that needs to be signed in order for your kids to go. The second form is a photo release and it is voluntary. Please send the forms back by Friday.
As always, thank you for trusting me with your kids. I truly enjoy spending time with them. Please comment or reach out with questions or concerns.
February 4
Yesterday, I watched the kids draw what they think it must have been like to have to continue to fight for one’s human rights over and over and over.
Each stick figure drawing was to represent a word and show how people may have felt walking miles and miles through marches, to work or school, during bus boycotts, etc. The words are: tired, weary, fatigued, exhausted, aching and spent.
Often in the Blossoms class, when the kids create something, they display the projects on the tables and walk around to see everyone else’s project. Ms. Grace coaches the kids on what types of responses are appropriate.
During an activity where it’s easy to be silly, compare themselves to others or criticize others’ work, kids learn how to be proud of themselves
February 5
The first video is to show you that real learning is messy. We celebrate that instead of shying away from it.
Today, we put together a huge paper chain. Each link represents 25 miles of walking by protesters during the Montgomery bus boycott. Every Blossom made a chain. Then we linked them all together and worked as a team to hang it up.
It took the whole morning, which was much longer than I had planned for. I realized that it was really important to finish it because to stop would mean a loss of momentum. One of the things I love about teaching at Bloom is the flexibility I have to do things like this.
Once we finished, we talked about the skills we practiced while working on the chain. Some of what the Blossoms said was that we worked on resilience, patience, teamwork and communication.
This chain is a visual reminder that together, we can fight against injustice and the power of community. I hope this post brightens your day and brings you some hope. I know it did for me.
February 9
We made hand pies (tiny little pies) with apple and sweet potato fillings today. It gave the Blossoms a tiny taste (pun intended 😉ðŸ¤) of what Georgia Gilmore and her Club From Nowhere achieved during the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Georgia made and sold lunches and pies and donated profits to support the boycott. Her donations helped to buy cars for carpool, gas and other needs.
Tomorrow, we will don our mathmatican hats to see how many pies she would have had to make and how much time it took.
**Please note that Evergreen cancelled our visit this Friday due to scheduling issues. This means that we will have time to work on our Valentine boxes Friday morning.
We will have our first ever Valentine's Olympics in the afternoon. As I told the Blossoms, no athletic abilities are needed for this Olympics.
February 12
We spent a big chunk of the day making lots of hand pies. During that time, each group was surprised when they were "shut down" and had to sit out for 7 minutes (1 min=1 day). Being shut down and fined was part of Georgia Gilmore and Club Nowhere's reality as the city tried all sorts of tactics to stop the bus boycott.
After making the pies, we shared them with the Sprouts and Pods. While the apple pie was much more popular, many of the Blossoms also enjoyed the sweet potato pie, which is a popular flavor in the South. They reported that it tastes a lot like pumpkin pie.
**I tried to capture as many photos as I could but it was really busy so I didn't get as many as I would have liked. So, many apologies if your kids got left out of the pictures.
February 18
I hope everyone had a chance to enjoy the surprise spring day today. Our trip to University Galleries was a success. Everyone persisted through adding embroidery to a photo they chose from the Montgomery bus boycott.
Prior to going to the gallery, all the Blossoms chose a picture and drew in patterns on parts of the picture that they wanted to enhance.
Today, they began by poking holes to make it easier to pass the needle through. Then they used the basic stitches we learned last week to embroider on the picture.
We will add this to our envelope of prototypes, which we will use when we plan out the quilt blocks.
We also took a break and went to the circle where we met the Sprouts and Pods (they went to the library and were playing at the circle).
Please note that we will go to St. Vincent DePaul food pantry this Friday.
February 26
We took the coffee stains from Tuesday and turned them into drawings. The purpose of this art activity is to practice our flexible thinking skills and to see things from a different perspective.
For math, we are looking at the economic impact of the Montgomery Bus Boycott by comparing finances between MIA (Montgomery Improvement Association), which is the group that organized and maintained the boycott with the bus company.
It's a big task because it was a complex economic situation and because there was a huge range of money involved. We had to tape two 11x17 pieces of graph paper together to get everything to fit.
We are using a ledger to calculate each group's finances, then plotting that on a line graph. We will finish this next week.
We also used a graphic organizer to help us develop symbols to represent the bus boycott. Then we turned them into stamps. Eventually, we will be stamping our own fabric, which will be included in our quilt.
**If you are joining us tomorrow for the Blossoms Olympics, you're welcome to come in with your kids in the morning and stay until the Olympics start. This will give you a chance to see our morning routine. No pressure if you would rather come back at 9.
If you do stay but don't want to join in with our morning routines, you are welcome to sit elsewhere in the room. I would like to ask for you to sit in the backroom where the kids won't see you if you are going to be on your phone. I try really hard to keep our time at school as screen free as possible so that everyone can be engaged. Thank you in advance for understanding.
We have been slowly building a portfolio of possible prototypes for our quilt. We have made stamps using symbols that represent big ideas on the civil rights movement, created silhouettes that could be turned into appliques and exploring different ways to make backgrounds for quilts.
Last week's background pattern was inspired by Gee's Bend, which is a type of quilt made by the Gee's Bend community in Alabama. This type of quilt has a long and deep history and was partly the inspiration in Michelle Obama's dress for her first Lady portrait.
We watched a video about Gee's Bend, used a graphic organizer to help us process the information and then looked through this beautiful book to find inspiration. Then the Blossoms created 2 paper prototypes of Gee's Bend patterns.
A big part of creating these prototypes is practicing how to pre-plan. After looking through the book, the Blossoms planned out their own design, chose colors and decided where the colors will go. Then they took their plans and turnt them into reality.
Pre-planning slows us down, ensuring that we are being intentional and thoughtful. As a result, the different prototypes turned out great!
March 9
March 13
After 3 weeks, we are finished with learning about the economics of the Montgomery bus boycott! It was a huge undertaking because it was really complicated.
We read about ways the MIA (Montgomery Improvement Association) earned money to fund the boycott. They had to manage a complex system of car pooling alongside increasing police fines and legal fees.
We compared MIA's finances with MCL (Montgomery City Line), the bus company that was impacted by the boycott. While the MIA's fiances slowly but steadily increased, the bus company's budget tanked and was out of money by the 2nd month of the bus boycott.
Ask your kids how the bus company was able to operate for another 9 months of the boycott.
Then we plotted the two organizations finances on a huge line chart so that they could see the difference.
I also added in a montage of videos from the food pantry yesterday. The Blossoms and I spoke a lot about how going to the food pantry teaches us work ethics and helps build community. We also talked about how when the world feels out of control, making us feel powerless, we focus on what we can control. Giving the food pantry a couple of hours of our day is one way for us to achieve that.
If you haven't done so yet, please sign up for parent teacher conferences. The sign up link is at the top of this Band page.
Also, friendly reminder that we are having our next Blossoms parents connection activity this Thursday, 3/19 from 9-ish to 10-ish. We will be working on group collage (which is an art activity).
