My Gift of a Turtle Quilt

I have been invited to spend the afternoon with my daughter's first grade class.  We are going to do a craft project that I know nothing about.  Gotta run.

When I arrive everyone is all smiles and I can tell there is a secret going on.  After hugs all around, my daughter seats me at a small table and hands out a turtle for each person to color and as she is explaining, she keeps stopping and putting her finger to her lips saying, "remember --- shhhhh."

They are so cute as they head off to color their turtles.  Now everyone knows that I adore sea turtles and apparently it has been shared with this class.

As they finish coloring, each one brings their turtle up to the table to glue them onto a preselected colored piece of construction paper.

Soon I am given a hole punch and told where to punch holes on each piece of paper.  I think I'm a little slow today as I still have no idea what they are up to.

Next I am told to cut and help tie yarn bits between the holes.  Now I know that they are making a wall hanging for their room.  Surely I have figured it out, right?

Once they are all finished my daughter calls everyone up to the front of the class and asks them what TWO things she told them that her mom liked.  The answers were quick:  turtles and QUILTS.  OH fun, now I know what they have made.

When she lets them do their TA-DA, they are all smiles as am I.  How sweet is this?

We then are able to talk a bit about sea turtles and how special they are before I have to leave and race to the other end of town to pick up my granddaughter from school.  What an incredible gift I have running out the door with me.  Look!!  Thank you so much to Mrs. Austin's 1st grade class.