Irvington Middle School eighth graders in Jon Mancini’s Home and Careers classes sewed felt stuffed monsters from the designs of first grade students from PS 59 in the Bronx. The “Monster Project” was part of the classes’ textile production and design unit, and integrated the CTE (career and technical education) theme of Problem Solving and Innovation through the design process.
In keeping with teachings in their previous unit of career exploration, Mr. Mancini stressed that the students treat this project like it was their job. The first grade students acted as the clients and the eighth grade students created a product based off of the design of their client.
The students were taught several types of stitches and shown the various material and sewing notions that they were allowed to use for this project. They first had to sketch a plan of how to create their monster and indicate the various stitches and materials they would be using. In keeping with the CTE theme of Sustainability, the students used buttons, plastic eyes and felt scraps from previous projects and saved felt scraps from these monsters to be used for future projects. Students did a great job working together and giving each other constructive input during each step of the process.
“We were able to schedule a Google Meet with two of my four 8th grade classes and two of the three 1st grade classes in PS 59 in the Bronx,” Mancini said. “It was heartwarming to see how overjoyed and thankful the first graders were when they had the chance to connect with our classes, who did a fantastic job of bringing their drawings to life.”
Date Added: 1/31/2023
