The fashion classes collaborated with Penn Lincoln’s first grade students to construct monsters for the Halloween season. The monsters consisted of paper print outs delivered by fashion teacher Betsy Cron that the little kids colored and designed, the sewing classes constructed the monsters from the younger students’ drawings and took a field trip to deliver the 3D monsters in person a few weeks later.
“I started emailing as we were wrapping up hand sewing skills,” Cron said. “I was trying to get the groundwork laid with them [Penn Lincoln Elementary]. At first, I emailed the principal and didn’t get any feedback at all, so then I started asking people, ‘who are the first grade teachers?’ I asked Mrs. Harrington and reached out to them directly.”
The handouts for the monsters were delivered on Oct. 7, and the elementary students were given three weeks to complete them.
“I dropped off forms that had a monster outline, three different shapes, a space to fill out their name, the monster’s name and their hobbies,” Cron said. “I asked, ‘What does a monster like to do?’ Two first grade teachers ran with it.”
The elementary teachers did the handouts as an activity in class. High school students were assigned monsters based on difficulty level and sewing skills.
Freshman Elliana Scott took a sewing class in sixth grade and continued with it in high school.
“I got this little pink monster that this girl made,” Scott said. “It was really fun to make. I’ve helped my grandma stitch up holes, so I’m kind of familiar with sewing. It [the project] was really exciting, because I got to give it [the monster] to the girl myself, so it made me really happy. They [elementary students] get more excited about it than older kids, so it was exciting to see their excitement. It was fun making something for someone else, so they can enjoy it too.”
The fashion classes took a field trip to Penn Lincoln Elementary in order to deliver the monsters to the younger students themselves.
Freshman Catherine Dufour created two monsters for the project.
“My favorite part was figuring out how to incorporate the design and use the materials that we had,” Dufour said. “I liked sewing and the different techniques we used. All of them [elementary students] seemed really happy with their monsters, so that was nice to see.”
Cron plans to expand this project into later parts of the year and to different elementary schools in the district.
“I have teachers reaching out to me from all of the elementary schools,” Cron said. “The trickiest thing is figuring out how we would do it. Some of the schools are so big and two classes would be optimum for my kiddos. I’m thinking we will begin working on spring shapes around Valentine’s Day.”
