Middle and Elementary School Students Collaborate for Cross-Age Monster Project

Eighth grade AVID students from Beacon, Frederick D. Thomas, and Mariner Middle Schools teamed up with kindergarten students from Lewes, Love Creek, and Milton Elementary Schools for a creative, cross-age project inspired by two books: The Color Monster: A Story About Emotions by Anna Llenas and Go Away, Big Green Monster by Ed Emberley.

The collaboration is part of the AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) curriculum, which emphasizes building community and cultivating leadership both inside and outside the classroom. The project combines literacy, creativity, and social-emotional learning in a hands-on way that benefits students of all ages.

All three of the middle schools were able to put their own spin on the project, each executing it in slightly different ways. On October 30, 30 AVID eighth graders from Beacon Middle School visited Love Creek Elementary to read The Color Monster aloud to about 78 kindergarteners in small groups. Following the story, kindergarten students with the help of the eighth graders, designed and colored their own “emotion monsters”, expressing the emotions highlighted in the book through color and creativity. Beacon’s AVID students will now go back to their classrooms to bring the monsters to life, based on the student drawings. “This project supports both social-emotional learning and literacy while also giving our AVID students meaningful leadership and service-learning opportunities,” said Nicole Hughes, Beacon AVID Teacher and initiator of the project. “It’s a beautiful example of how collaboration and creativity can connect students across grade levels.” Beacon will be delivering the monsters to the Love Creek kindergarten classes in December.

At Milton Elementary, kindergarten students used a template to create their monsters first. Students named it, designed it, and shared some of their monster’s qualities on their template. The Mariner AVID eighth graders divided up the designs and got to work using felt and sewing materials to bring the drawings to life with custom stuffed monsters. The eighth graders delivered their monsters to the Milton students on Friday, October 31, where Mrs. Heather Kindl also gifted the book “Go Away, Big Green Monster” to the teachers. “The AVID students truly were able to bring the monsters to life, replicating them almost exactly as they had been drawn by the kindergarteners,” said Heather Kindle, AVID teacher at Mariner Middle School. “During class, the middle schoolers applied focused note-taking and problem-solving skills to learn basic stitching techniques to craft each creation. It was an incredibly fun morning watching the kindergarteners open their monsters with the eighth-grade group.”

Fred Thomas Middle School students delivered their handmade monsters to Lewes Elementary kindergarten students on Monday, November 3. Kindergarteners read the “Go Away, Big Green Monster” book in their classrooms prior to designing their own. Much like Milton Elementary, Lewes Elementary students named their monsters, colored them and gave them some special qualities and characteristics that the Fred Thomas eighth graders did their best to include on the custom stuffed monster. Fred Thomas AVID teacher, Dana Orton said, “Watching our middle schoolers give their creations to the kindergarten students was a highlight for everyone! I think our eighth graders were just as excited to give the monsters as the kindergarten students were to receive them. It’s through projects like these that our students can create meaningful connections and truly foster a culture of empathy, leadership, and lifelong learning!”

The success of this cross-collaboration project has inspired both the teachers and the students to create more fun and unique ways of building connections between the middle school students and young learners at all the elementary schools district-wide!