Underground Railroad Mini Investigation

Every year for Black History Month our school does a door decorating challenge.  Each classroom chooses a famous African American to study and then uses the door to display things they know about them.  This year we really struggled to decide who we should learn about.  Instead of choosing a person we decided to go with the concept of the Underground Railroad.  What started out as a door challenge soon turned into a mini investigation... as it usually does!  We also decided to extend our "door" and really make a door to door display.

We started by reading different books and doing research about the Underground Railroad.  First we learned about slavery.

We learned about what the Underground Railroad was, the people involved and what it might have looked like.

We also learned about the importance of the quilt patterns and how they were used on the Underground Railroad.

We decided our display would be a story map of the Underground Railroad... DISCLAIMER- it is not an accurate map but a retelling of what we learned!  The students signed up for a team they wanted to work on and we got started.

Once all the pieces were created, they were compiled into our story map.  It all turned out really great and the kids learned a lot!