- January 8, 2026
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Thomas Velasquez, a Bridgewater Middle School eighth-grader, was hopeful.
He worked for more than a month on a turtle Squishmallow, carefully selecting the colors, making every stitch exact and matching all the details to the design in front of him.
He wanted the turtle named Bobby to look exactly like the one Keene’s Crossing Elementary third-grader Henry Rose designed as part of a collaborative art project between art classes at Bridgewater Middle and Keene’s Crossing Elementary.
When Thomas handed Henry a white paper bag and Henry pulled out the Squishmallow, he smiled.
Mission accomplished.
The Squishmallow looked just like the design.
Dozens of third-graders were filled with joy as they unveiled Wednesday, Dec. 17, the Squishmallows seventh- and eighth-graders handmade for them based on their designs.
Bridgewater Middle School art teacher Kevin Hand and Keene’s Crossing Elementary art teacher Wendy Martinez deemed the collaborative project a success.
Both Hand and Martinez have wanted to bring their students together with older or younger students, but they never had the opportunity.
That is, until Hand attended last year’s art show at Keene’s Crossing Elementary School. He saw the great work that was done, and he approached Martinez with an idea.
What if his middle-school students worked with her elementary students on a project?
With the popularity of Squishmallows, the idea formed easily.
“I live locally, right around the corner, and my kids are in elementary and middle, so the same age group,” Hand said. “I thought it’d be a really neat project.”
As soon as Hand and Martinez introduced the Squishmallow project to their students, all of them were enthused and engaged.
Third-graders made sketches of their dream Squishmallows.
“The fact that as an artist, designer, they can actually design their own Squishmallow and have it come to life, that was the magical part,” Martinez said.
Martinez said the project “wasn’t hard work at all” for her elementary students, because they were so engaged. They immediately were excited, which made it for an easy lesson to create. She said the elementary school is filled with the most talented, creative students who were able to apply real-world techniques and skills to their designs.
The designs ranged from animals to fruits and vegetables to whatever the third-graders could dream up like aliens.
“Their creativity is unbridled,” Hand said of the third-graders with a chuckle. “It did make it difficult, but my kids are the best, so they did a good job of it.”
Eighth-grader Isabella Glass said she couldn’t recall being as creative as these third-graders when she was their age. She saw many designs based on characters from books, TV shows and movies.
With some complicated designs, some middle schoolers had to use critical thinking skills to problem solve, even if it meant starting all over again. If the stitches were wrong, they were undone and re-stitched.
Isabella said there was pressure to create the Squishmallow to look exactly like the design. The middle schoolers didn’t want to disappoint the third-graders.
Eighth-grader Laura Caldeira, forgot to stitch the arms onto her Pokémon Squishmallow, so she had to start again.
But those mistakes are what added to the challenge and fun of the project.
The artists didn’t let any setbacks deter them from completing the project, and many were proud of what they created.
Seeing the final Squishmallows, Hand and Martinez were blown away. They were in awe of how similar they were to the third-graders’ designs.
What made this collaboration all the more special was the students knowing their creations were meant for someone else.
When eighth-grader Bernardo Castello first learned of the project, he asked which elementary students would be participating. He was thrilled to learn his sister Carolina Castello, a third-grader, would be involved. He asked Hand to have his sister’s creation because he felt she “really deserves it.”
Bernardo shared with his little sister that he was making a Squishmallow for her, for which she was grateful.
He made minor color adjustments to Carolina’s reindeer design that he thought would make it even better. He had some challenges with stitching the body together, but it all worked in the end.
Carolina said her brother’s work was amazing.
Understanding the kind gesture of the middle-schoolers, a third-grader approached Martinez wanting to find a way to give back to them. They brainstormed ideas and came up with friendship bracelets.
Martinez taught them Kumihimo, a Japanese braiding technique.
Carolina wanted to keep the bracelet a secret from her brother, so she hid away in her mother’s bedroom while she worked on it. She was proud of her finished bracelet.
Bernardo thought if his sister was born just a year or two before or after, he never would have been able to participate in the project with his sister, so the Castello siblings were appreciative of the opportunity to gift one another something handmade.
Martinez said the collaboration was more than just learning art lessons; it was about making lasting memories.
“The spirit of giving on both ends was just a beautiful thing to see,” she said.
For Martinez, the project exchange Wednesday, Dec. 17, was emotional. She was seeing some of her former third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students now as seventh- and eighth-graders, and they continued to pursue a passion for the arts.
“It was really a full-circle moment for me, because I realized that maybe what I do now affects them in the future,” she said. “It made me realize that, yes, what I do here has an impact on their future.”
After a successful first year, both Hand and Martinez hope to make the collaboration a tradition for their schools. They can’t wait to see what their students come up with next.
