They’ve created a monster!
Actually a lot more than one.
Almost 90 monsters made their way to the La Jolla Elementary School campus this week, culminating a month-long project between La Jolla Elementary and Muirlands Middle School.
But rather than be scary or harmful, these monsters were cute and colorful, funny and friendly. They originated in the imaginations of third-graders, were brought to life by middle-schoolers as plush toys and were hand-delivered to their elementary school designers.
The project started last month when La Jolla Elementary students were given a creative-writing project in which they had to describe an imaginary monster in detail — what it eats, how many eyes and arms it has, where it lives, problems it encounters and more. The students also had to draw their creatures.
The stories and drawings were given to Muirlands Middle School students in Patricia Cox’s art classes. Using materials donated by local design studio and sewing school Shapes to Forms, the middle school students spent the past month making plush toys meant to look as close to the drawings as possible, based on the details in the story.
Muirlands seventh-grader Alanna Sweeney stands with La Jolla Elementary third-grader Maddy Wade with the monster Alanna made based on Maddy’s drawing.
(Ashley Mackin-Solomon)
“I like it a lot, it’s really fun,” third-grader Maddy Wade said of the monster constructed by Muirlands seventh-grader Alanna Sweeney. “It’s the exact same as how I drew it. I love it.”
Shapes to Forms founder Diana Ngo, a parent at Muirlands, said “the mission is to create connections between students through art and non-digital means.”
“Most people, including the students, will see this as an art project, but it’s also engineering,” Ngo said. “The project would be unsuccessful if they didn’t understand the construction behind it. The experience they gained was taking someone else’s vision and turning it into a reality.”
The students made all 88 monsters — one for every third-grader at La Jolla Elementary — by hand in various stages.
“The students had to think in terms of shape and form to create these monsters,” Ngo said. “They had to think about what would go where. They had to resketch the drawing into a technical design, where things attach and how to make different things three-dimensional. So there was a lot of planning before they got to construction.”
As a practice run, the students used their technical drawings to make model toys out of construction paper and tape to make sure it all would come together as planned.
“They got to see where things fall apart or see what worked,” Ngo said. “They also had to think about scale.”
Shapes to Forms sent instructors to teach the young builders how to sew and show them the various stitches they could use. From there, the students spent time during art class creating the toys.
La Jolla Elementary School students hold up the monsters they designed that were constructed by Muirlands Middle School students.
(Ashley Mackin-Solomon)
“I thought it was really fun,” said Muirlands eighth-grader Elsa Shuman Pettersson. “A lot of kids in my class were excited to be making these, so it was nice. I can sew, but a lot of people in my class do not. But we had someone come in and teach us, so it was nice to have everyone learning it together.”
“Everybody brought their ‘A’ game,” Cox said. “To know you are doing something for someone else, to make art in service, elevates the accountability and the importance of the project. … Some kids were nervous that their toy wouldn’t be good enough, but I reminded them that little kids idolize the big kids.”
With that in mind, the Muirlands students worked that much harder on their projects.
“It can be very special to make something for themselves, but we have never done a project to have them make something just to give it to someone else,” Cox said. “A lot of kids were sad to give their toy away, but I think it gave a sense of community. I work really hard to keep the kids present … and we want them to have face-to-face connection. This was awesome in that we were thinking about this little third-grader that we only knew about from their story and through the drawing.”
The morning of May 29, the Muirlands students walked to the elementary school, monsters in hand. They lined up in small groups and let the third-graders try to recognize their monsters based on their drawings. They all did.
Muirlands Middle School students, with the monsters they constructed, stand in a line so La Jolla Elementary School students can find the monsters they designed.
(Ashley Mackin-Solomon)
“That’s so cool!” one student yelled before running off to show his friends his monster.
“Look at mine,” exclaimed another student. “It’s just like my drawing!” ◆