Mrs. Shedd's Fabulous Fifth Grade Classroom: Natalie Kinsey-Warnock

Day One

We have had five days of the six day residency with Vermont author and historian Natalie Kinsey-Warnock. She began on the first day sharing that most of her books are based on family stories. Throughout the past month and a half we have been reading several of these stories, including her first book about the Canada geese quilt that Natalie designed and made with her grandmother. Natalie talked about how many times she revises her stories (up to 40 times) before sending them off to the publisher. It then can take up to another 5 years before the book is published and on the bookstore shelf. Currently, she has over 60 books that are “works in progress.” Natalie also shared a slideshow that showed children about her life. Slides included many of the animals she has rescued, including 2 horses, 10 dogs, and many cats.

During the afternoon, students began learning the meanings of many words that will be used during this residency. Ancestors, descendants, genealogy, siblings, paternal, and maternal were some of these words. Natalie taught students how to determine relationships such as cousins once removed, twice removed, and more. We learned about how some names have changed over time and that many of the last names came from occupations (i.e. Cooper is an English occupational name for a maker of barrels and other wooden vessels.) Students also were given a family tree to begin filling out and were told about the research project that they will be working on. This project will be one of the things shared at the Celebration of Learning. Below are a few pictures of the quilts that Natalie designed and her grandmother made. Natalie told us that her grandmother did not start making quilts until she was 65. These quilts were all made by hand and she completed a total of 250 quilts.