Use the following ideas from the story to practice this strategy:

• The items given to the woman during a wedding proposal over generations.
• The celebrating at weddings over time.
• The items given to new babies over generations.

• Where does the story take place?
• Who are the characters?
• When does this story take place?

Sometimes when we’re reading, we come across a word that doesn’t sound quite right. When that happens, we can try a different sound for the letters to see if it makes sense.

Let’s try this strategy with some words from The Keeping Quilt:

• Love – At first, we might want to say it like with a long o sound, but if that doesn’t sound right, we can try a short u sound: "luv." That sounds like a word we know.
• Life – We might try sounding it out like “lif” with a short i sound, but that doesn’t sound quite right. Let’s try a long i sound: "life." That makes sense.
• Cape – If we first try a short a sound, "cap," that doesn’t seem right in the sentence. Let’s try a long a sound: "cape." That sounds correct.

• P. 5: When reading, “It will be like having the family in backhome Russia dance around us at night.”(sound dreamy and wishful) 
• P. 28: Make your voice sound happy, like you are at a wedding when reading, “At my wedding, men and women danced together.” 
• P. 36: Make your voice sound sad when you are reading, “When my mother died, prayers were said to lift her soul to heaven.”

• P. 4: dress and babushka – only items in color on the page 
• P. 11: wedding huppa – you can see the quilt, and it is the only colored item on the page 
• P. 18: “...the cake was a kulich...”- you can see the cake on the quilt 
• P. 32: “superhero capes”- the next page has an illustration of a child wearing the quilt as a cape

Pull out and discuss interesting words in this text such as: nightdress, quilt, scraps, and border.