Deborah Hopkinson
Lesson plans for Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt

Deborah Hopkinson
The author's official site. Don't miss activities under the "For Teachers" link.

Apples to Oregon
No lesson plans here, but a nice collection of author information and links to activities related to apples. This 6-page document requires Adobe Reader for access.

Climax of a Story
After listening to Stone Soup and charting rising actions, problem, climax, falling actions, and resolution in a graphic organizer, students practice with Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt (or another book of teacher's choice) and then work independently with a self-selected book.

Escaping Slavery: Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt
When visiting the recommended website in this lesson, students learn about the Underground Railroad. They create a problems/solutions/events chart to help them understand the relationships between Clara's problems and how she solves them. Similar to Clara's map that shows the path north to freedom, students create their own map, designing a key, a compass, and landmarks surrounding their home and school. Designed for grades 3-5.

Freedom Quilts and escaping slavery
Students will know that the underground railroad helped many slaves escape to freedom, discuss slavery, learn how some slaves escaped to freedom using secret maps, and create their own maps using relative location. Includes lesson plan, vocabulary, related titles and links. 3 pages; Adobe Reader required.

Mapping Slavery
From the U. S. Library of Congress: "The 1860 census was the last time the federal government took a count of the Southern slave population. In 1861, the United States Coast Survey issued two maps of slavery based on the census data: the first mapped Virginia and the second mapped Southern states as a whole." This infographic may contribute to student understanding of the background to the novel.

National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom
Sponsored by the National Park Service, this site provides links to national historical sites and to additional information about the Underground Railroad.

Quilt to Freedom
Students learn about the Underground Railroad and work with a map. This lesson includes an optional service project. Designed for grades K-2.