By Jondi Gumz
Sarah Leonard, a fourth grade teacher at Valencia Elementary in Aptos, shares this heart-felt project by her students, who have knit scores of beanies this year.
They knit for 15 to 20 minutes a day while she reads aloud, currently Wonder by RJ Pallacio.
The students give away the first and second hats they make, keep the third, give away the fourth and fifth and keep the sixth, always multiples of three.
Leonard said they often give them to siblings, parents, or baby cousins, spreading the love.
The donation to Grey Bears came after a behind-the-scenes field trip to the Grey Bears nonprofit thrift store in Santa Cruz.
“This philanthropic endeavor was inspired about 15 years ago by a student named Zarius in Ms. Brown’s class, who learned about ‘Knitting for Neighbors’ at his church,” Leonard explained.
Another teacher, Ms. Freya Rasmussen, also knits with her class.
Leonard’s students have been knitting since she started teaching at Valencia 16 years ago – and they even kept knitting when classes went online during the pandemic.
“Knitting is soothing and strengthens fine motor, and feels lovely to be altruistic and also keep our finished products,” she shared.
Students are not allowed to wear hats in class but Leonard makes an exception for their own knit beanies, which she said, they wear with pride.
And she’s heard parents ask their kids to knit a beanie for a relative’s baby shower.
One year, Leonard had a student who was diagnosed with brain cancer. While she was being treated, “our class would have Zoom calls on our big screen and my student and I collectively knit a beanie and gave it to her,” Leonard explained. “That made it so much more personal.”
And when the student returned to class, she wore the beanie.
As a teacher, she finds this activity is a way to knit the class together with a common goal.
Some kids have knitted 15 or more while a few are struggling to knit their first, but without prompting, students help each other.
One student “is the fastest knitter I’ve seen and he knits bigger hats with gorgeous thick yarn and keeps churning them out at an amazing rate,” Leonard said.
Some have added pom poms and another created a seasonal beanie in red and white.
Leonard said, “It’s truly beautiful for me to look out as I’m reading aloud and appreciate my students and their heartfelt gifts.”
Photo Credit: Sarah Leonard