Sixth-Graders Stitch Superhero Pillows

It’s a bird…it’s a plane…no it’s Grade 6! Students in Caroline Shelton and Andrea Calandrelli’s classes got to live out their superhero dream with a crossover art and design project in which they crafted their own superhero or supervillain stuffed pillows.

“The students were excited to create their own superheroes and supervillains,” commented Ms. Shelton. “They got really invested into creating the backstory and how they developed their powers and what they represent.”

For the project, students first learned about morphology in their language arts class. By definition, morphology is the study of words and their structure within a sentence. Using this concept, students took roots and prefixes with strong meanings such as “struct,” “flect,” “pyro,” and “hypno” to create origin stories for their characters.

In art class, students learned about the human form and how to make and draw body shapes. Once the students designed a mock-up of their characters and how they would pose, they painted their illustrations on a canvas. The designs were taken into the MakerSpace Lab where the students sewed their canvas on a sewing machine and stuffed them to make pillows.

The superhero and supervillain pillows are on display at the end of the hallway on the lower floor of Whitson Building. Art teacher Kristen Thornton helped craft the cityscape background for the pillows.

“The pure creativity and imagination of the students is wonderful to see,” commented Mrs. Thornton.