Outreach Program

The Museum visits with K-1 children at Discovery Charter School in San Jose and teaches them about quilts.

Outreach Programs Flyer Available
In-School Program Especially for 2nd Grades
Through a highly interactive presentation, students learn about the different parts of a quilt, are introduced to new shapes and terms, and learn bits of United States history as museum docents present two dozen quilt blocks and discuss the origins of the block designs and pattern names. The quilt blocks include African, Japanese, Hispanic and Native American designs, making them relevant to the culturally diverse student population of Santa Clara County. Using cloth and permanent fabric markers, each student creates a quilt block that can be assembled into a beautiful quilt for the classroom. A delightful rhyming story links all the quilt blocks used in the presentation. Students are encouraged to use the quilt blocks they’ve made to tell their own stories.

Each student receives two free passes to the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles.

Each teacher receives two free museum passes and a packet of the following materials: complete assembly instructions for the classroom quilt, “What is a Quilt?” handout, glossary, reproducible classroom activities, and recommended reading list.

Length of program: 75 minutes
Program Fee: $80 per class

Participation in the 2nd grade program helps meet the Visual Arts content standards for Artistic Perception (1.1), Creative Expression (2.1 & 2.2), and Historical and Cultural Context (3.1 & 3.3) and the Mathematics content standards for Measurement and Geometry (2.1 & 2.2).

To schedule an in-class program, please download the reservation form here and mail to:
Educational Outreach Coordinator
San Jose Quilt Museum of Quilts & Textiles
520 South First Street
San Jose, CA 95113

In-School Program Especially for 5th Grades
Students learn about United States history through a storytelling presentation that uses quilt patterns, other visual aids and music to bring the past to life. What was life like for a 9-year-old child traveling across the country in a covered wagon in 1849? Or a Russian immigrant girl settling in Kansas in 1874? How were quilts used along the Underground Railroad? Delivering first-person narratives gleaned from diaries, journals, letters and autobiographies of early Americans, museum docents link the development of various quilt patterns to U.S. social and political events, reinforcing the history curriculum while introducing students to the triumphs and tribulations of 19th century Americans.

Topics addressed in the program include:

Each student receives two free passes to the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles.

Each teacher receives two free museum passes and a packet of the following materials: “What is a Quilt?” handout, glossary, reproducible classroom activities, and recommended reading list.

Length of program: 1 hour
Program Fee: $80 per class; an optional kit for students to make a class quilt as a post-visit activity is available upon request for $15.

Participation in the 5th grade program helps meet the Visual Arts content standards for Artistic Perception (1.2 & 1.3), Creative Expression (2.7), Historical and Cultural Context (3.2) and Aesthetic Valuing (4.2), and History-Social Science content standard 5.8.

To schedule an in-class program, please download the reservation form here and mail to:
Educational Outreach Coordinator
San Jose Quilt Museum of Quilts & Textiles
520 South First Street
San Jose, CA 95113