Students in Heather Butler’s first-grade class at Mt Laurel School were surprised today to see their coloring designs come to life after instructional aide Brandy Whitfield turned their geometric squares into a beautiful quilt.

“My first-grade class has just finished a geometry unit in math.  Part of this unit was to design different quilt squares,” explained Butler.

While the students were coloring their designs, Whitfield had come in to show the class a quilt she had made. She then offered to make an actual quilt out of the children’s designs.

“Each child colored a nine-square quilt without knowing what it was for,” said Butler.  “I sent these to Ms. Brandy and she created a life-size fabric quilt out of our paper square designs. She presented it to our class this morning and my class went wild! They kept asking, ‘Are you serious?'”

Butler said the students were so impressed and excited that their creation on paper had come to life.

Butler praised Whitefield as a wonderful instructional aide to not only the children that she works with directly but to others in the school who also need her help.

“We love Mrs. Brandy here at MLES,” Butler said.  She does not work in my class but saw an opportunity to use her talents to help my students understand that the math we do on paper actually can be used in the real world.  I think this is a critical lesson for students to understand early.”