Creative creatures inspired by character traits at Conshohocken Elementary School

Conshohocken Elementary School’s hallway was home to a flock of original creatures inspired by the building’s One School One Book selection, Willodeen by Katherine Applegate.

In the book, the title character Willodeen is an 11-year-old girl who enjoys animals and nature, but the creatures where she lives aren’t like any seen around Conshohocken. One of her closest companions was a pet “hummingbear”—a critter resembling a tiny bear with shimmering wings who was small enough to fit in her pocket. 

For February, the students looked at character traits—the internal and external qualities that help define a person or character. They pulled out words like brave, creative, gentle, and resourceful and then designed a creature based on one or two of the traits. The children worked together to bring their creature to life using recycled materials and other bits—like bottle caps, wire, and scraps of fabric. 

Third grader Aubrey Hamilton’s class made a giraffe named Giraffrey. “He’s a boy with wings, because he’s kind of like a hummingbear,” she said. Giaffrey was creative and resourceful, and carried a backpack. “My favorite thing was making all the musical instruments and stuff to go into the backpack,” she added.

Logan Drozd’s first grade class noticed that Willodeen was always her true self—transparent and clear. “We chose all of these clear materials to make him,” said Logan, whose favorite part was helping his teacher build it. 

While each month brings a new chapter and a new school-wide project, teacher Kristin Joka particularly enjoyed seeing the children having fun putting together February’s character trait creatures. “It’s really nice to get the students involved with the book,” she said. 

For third grader Tommy Hales, he couldn’t decide his favorite part of the month’s activities for One School One Book at Conshohocken Elementary. “Reading the Willodeen book was pretty fun, and making the monster was pretty fun, too," he said. "So I think I like both of them.”