HISTORY DAY

"Where Students Make History"

          History Day competitions are best described as "science fairs" for history.  Students complete projects which are judged on district, regional and state levels.  Winners at the state level advance to the National Competition in Washington, D.C.  This competition is divided into two divisions:  grades 6-8 and grades 9-12.

            Students become involved in these projects, actually making history rather than memorizing a series of dates or figures.  They use and develop higher level thinking skills, cooperative learning skills, research, language, and communication skills.

            Social Studies, language arts, drama or G/T students can all readily tap into this program that makes history fun!  Student projects can relate to the national theme on the local, state, national, or world history levels, using their interests and abilities.

            The ACHS librarian can assist students with research in the Archive and Manuscript collection at 

the Anoka County History Center & Library.  The knowledgeable staff can help students relate their chosen topic to local history as well as suggest other places to do further research.

QUILTS AND THEIR STORIES

This program comes to your group for a fee of $80.00.  To book your Quilts and Their Stories program, 

call (763) 421-0600 or email:  vickie@ac-hs.org

   Quilts can do much more than warm your toes on a cold winter night!

They can tell stories, paint pictures, bring back memories of good times and bad, and remind you of friends or family long gone.  Quilts reflect our lives and have for centuries.  This traveling program brings slides of these special quilts to your group along with their stories.  It includes some hands-on items of quilting, too.  This program is designed to be fun for everyone - not just quilters!.  If you like stories, this program is for you!

One of the quilts included in the program is called the "courting quilt." It dates to the years before Minnesota statehood and was made a young couple.  As their courtship grew, so did the quilt pieces they picked out.  He helped choose the fabrics while she sewed them together.  The quilt was eventually finished and visitors will hear what happened to the lover, the trip to the Territorial Fair and the quilt's connection to the City of St. Francis.

Another quilt raises many questions.  It's a signature quilt from Coon Rapids dated 1934.  Signature quilts have names stitched into them, usually friends and family of the makers.  The fabrics in this quilt are common fabrics, the kind everyone had from leftover sewing projects and flour or feed sacks.  The questions come from the names.  There is a square from Mrs. Jacob.  Is she Mrs. L.O. Jacob, the one L. O. Jacob School is named for?  Or Mrs. Vandecar, a familiar name, but who was she?  You'll hear more clues and perhaps you will have heard of some of these women who helped make a special quilt for their friend before she moved away.  (And you won't believe where she moved to!)

   Crazywork quilts are those wonderful quilts with patches of every color, size and shape, decorated with stitches and embroidery.  These incorporated symbols and designs, many of which have a special meaning.  A yellow rose could mean jealousy, but a red rose could mean love.  Peacocks symbolized the attribute of beauty.  Some of the meanings of the quilt motifs found in the ACHS collection are explained, as well as stories about the people who sewed these elaborate quilts.