Bookbag Activities for
Aunt Harriet's Underground Railroad in the Sky
By: Becca Umscheid

Aunt Harriet’s Underground Railroad in the Sky By: Faith Ringgold

Rationale:

• This book discusses a very sad, but important part of our history. It gives historical information along with emotional ties to the ideas surrounding slavery. It allows students the opportunity to learn about these events in a meaningful way through the words and artwork. This book could be used with many different age groups, though I would recommend it for 4^th-6^th grades.

Information about the Author:

• Faith Ringgold was born in 1930, in Harlem, a neighborhood in New York City. She went to City College in New York to study art and earned her degree from the School of Education. She followed the family tradition of teaching, but never stopped creating her own art or telling stories. Today she is a professor of fine art at the University of California at San Diego. She also has art studios in New York. She is married and has two daughters and three granddaughters.
• “I became an artist for the same reason I became a writer – I wanted to tell my story.”
• Because she was sick with asthma growing up, she spent a lot of time at home with her mother, a fashion designer. “She taught me how to sew and how to be creative with art and fabrics. When my mother died in 1981, I started making quilts as a tribute to her. During that time, I was trying to get my autobiography published, but no one wanted to print my story. In 1983, I began writing stories on my quilts, as an alternative. That way, when my quilts were hung up to look at, or photographed for a book, people could still read my stories.”
• “Writing children’s books has allowed me to communicate my ideas and vision and, I hope, give back to children some of the magic they have shown me."

Questions to use with the story:

• Before: Do a picture walk and ask students to predict what the book may be about. What is Slavery? Have you heard of Harriet Tubman? Have you heard of the Underground Railroad? What was the purpose of the Underground Railroad?
• During: Why is Cassie so upset that BeBe got on the train? Why is Cassie always one- step behind BeBe? What are some of the ways Cassie knows a place is safe? Paint a picture of some of the things an escaping slave might see to recognize a safe house.
• After: What would have happened if BeBe did not get on the train? If you were Cassie, would you have followed BeBe? What would you have done if you were asked to have a safe house along the Underground Railroad?

Activities to use with the story:

After doing all of the following activities, it would be fun to have a parent night to display student work and give several performances.

• Research Harriet Tubman’s life, and introduce ideas surrounding slavery. As a class, make a timeline of Harriet Tubman’s life, and some important dates involving slavery. Display this timeline in the classroom and leave space on it to add more dates throughout the unit.
• Students will make and use a journal throughout this unit. Entries may include their views on slavery, Harriet Tubman, or creative writing about other related topics. Students will add something new every day.
• Students will create individual train cars out of construction paper. These trains will be attached together and displayed around the room to symbolize the slaves who escaped with the help of the Underground Railroad.
• Students will write a poem from the viewpoint of a slave trying to escape on the Underground Railroad. They will focus on the use of imagery. These poems can then be displayed on the train cars described in activity number 3.
• Students will work in teams to draw a map of all the places Cassie and Be Be went on their journey. This map should include the “landmarks,” the slaves looked for along the way. (i.e. North Star, moss on the tree, quilt, songs, etc.)
• Students will research the actual Underground Railroad, paying special attention to the factual cities and distances these slaves traveled to freedom. Using mathematical calculations, students will discover the total number of miles a slave may have traveled, how long this would have taken if they walked 5 miles/day, 10 miles/day, etc. Other calculations could also be done.
• Research the meaning behind the slave “spirituals” and learn how to sing some of them. The book calls attention to “Let My People Go.” Learn the words and instrumental parts, and perform the song as a class.
• Discuss the illustrations by Faith Ringgold. (Dreamlike, vivid colors, imagery, etc.) Assign each student a specific page in the book and ask him or her to create a new illustration for the page, keeping in mind Ringgold’s techniques.
• Continue the discussion of Faith Ringgold’s artistry, bringing in some of her other work, especially Tar Beach. Discuss the idea of a story quilt. Using the student illustrations from activity number 8, post each picture onto a quilt square. Connecting all of the squares, make a class story quilt for display.
• Assign roles for the students as narrators and actors. Create a live performance of the book also to be shown on parent night, or to other classes.

Props:

• Art Supplies: construction paper, markers, paints, etc.
• Books: Historical books about slavery, Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman, other books by Faith Ringgold
• Maps: Maps of the Underground Railroad routes, as well as maps of slave/free states
• Music: CD’s of African American Slave Spirituals, musical instruments (drums, etc)
• Quilts: display pictures of Faith Ringgold’s story quilts, fabric for classroom quilt

Bibliography of other related books:

• If a Bus Could Talk: The Story of Rosa Parks – Faith Ringgold
• Tar Beach – Faith Ringgold
• The Invisible Princess – Faith Ringgold
• My Dream of Martin Luther King – Faith Ringgold
• The Underground Railroad – Charles L. Blockson
• Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman – Sarah Hopkins Bradford
• The Story of Harriet Tubman, Conductor of the Underground Railroad – Kate McMullan

Assessment Plan

• As mentioned before, it would be fun to have a parent night to display student work and give several performances. This would create an opportunity for students to share what they have learned about slavery and the Underground Railroad, as well as allow them to present some of their best work.
• This type of assessment would be a cross between performance assessment and portfolio assessment. Students will be graded on their participation in many activities such as Slave Spiritual music, and reader’s theater. Students will also be graded on the completion of all assigned activities (journals, poetry, etc) which could be collected into a portfolio.