Collaborative project benefits younger and older students

Penn Manor High School students collaborated with first-graders at Hambright Elementary School to create one-of-a-kind monsters for each youngster. As a writing exercise, the first-graders were asked to describe in detail what an ideal monster would look like to them. Those descriptions and crayon drawings were passed along to students in a Fashion and Design class at Penn Manor High School. The older students got busy bringing the illustrations and words to life, using felt, fiberfill, yarn, fabric, buttons and other materials to create hand-sewn one-of-a-kind monsters for every student in the class. The project gave the first-graders a chance to practice their descriptive writing skills and the high school students an opportunity to express their creativity and develop their design and sewing skills. But it went far beyond that. The groups of students developed a real bond that culminated when the stuffed creatures were delivered to Hambright on May 23.