ABOVE: Fairmont textiles student Hailey Worden and second grade student Louis Madsen enjoy a Rice Krispie Bar together. High school students presented the second graders with stuffed toys and bars based on designs submitted to them as part of a collaboration between elementary and high school classes.

AIRMONT- Earlier this month, students in Jodi Bass’s second grade class at Fairmont Elementary School were presented with hand sewn stuffed monsters and frosted Rice Krispie cakes from high school students. The stuffed monsters and desserts were specially created for them based on designs they had created and submitted months earlier.

The project was a collaboration between Bass’s class at the elementary school and textiles and culinary classes at Fairmont High School. The collaboration provided a fun incentive for students in each of the three courses and helped build relationships between younger and older students.

The second grade students worked on their writing skills, while the drawing created by them provided a complex design with which textiles students could practice hand sewing and the culinary students could practice cake decorating.

Fairmont High School family and consumer sciences teacher, Wendi Tonder, was creator and primary organizer of the project. Tonder originally had students create and sew their own monster designs as a project for her introductory textiles class 2019, but felt the project could be improved. The following year she began to collaborate with Bass’s class, and as a result the patterns students were given became more complex while the project’s participants were driven to put in more effort.

“When they had the little kid, knowing they were going to meet the child they were making it for, it made them more accountable,” said Tonder.

In 2022 Tonder and Bass repeated the project and this year Tonder invited students from Jeanne Garber’s intermediate culinary class to participate. All three teachers plan to repeat the project in future years.

“It makes me so happy how it’s progressed,” said Tonder.

In February students in Bass’s class were provided with five different templates to sketch on and were tasked with writing a short paragraph about their creation. Second grader Louis Madsen is one student who participated in the project and named his monster Spooderman. Spooderman’s favorite food is Krabby Patties and he is scared of cats and dogs. Madsen and Spooderman live in the same house and like to play together.

Spooderman’s design was chosen by Fairmont textiles student Hailey Worden. Worden said the project’s main challenge was ensuring the fabric was cut and sized correctly, but was ultimately pleased with the end result.

“It’s really nice because now I know it got to the kid it was supposed to go to and the kid’s going to have fun with it,” Worden.

Meanwhile in Garber’s intermediate culinary course students were in their cake decorating unit, where Jaelynn Pierce spent two class periods preparing a large Rice Krispie bar in Spooderman’s likeness. She was pleased with the final result and enjoyed seeing Madsen’s reaction to the final result.

“It’s fun to see them see their creations come to life,” said Pierce.

Overall the second grader’s reactions to the project were overwhelmingly positive.

“They absolutely love them and cherish them,” said Bass.

Garbers thought the final reveal was enjoyed by both the high schoolers and the second grade students. “Having the older kids interact with those young second graders I saw joy, delight and excitement because it was something that they initially created and got to enjoy,” said Garbers.

In addition to driving improvement in their own classes, the participating teachers also said their students and themselves benefited from working with classes at the other school.

“I think it’s a great experience for the teachers in this district to have those collaboration opportunities; it’s a fun way for us to do something different but also working with different age groups, that’s a fun thing, too,” said Garbers.

“It’s a great way to connect and start building relationships with older students, overall it’s just a great experience,” said Bass.