Edwards Elementary School teacher’s grandmother knits hats for 50+ kindergarteners

It is going to be a warm, colorful and cozy winter for Edwards Elementary School kindergarteners, thanks to the efforts of one teacher and her grandmother.

Arvada resident Betty Bradley, grandmother of Edwards Elementary kindergarten teacher Ella Sunday, knit more than 50 winter hats for the school’s kindergarteners based on designs the students themselves created earlier this fall.

In September, Sunday and the other kindergarten teachers assigned all 50-plus students the task of coloring in a printout of a winter hat. Over the next four months, Bradley hand-knit a hat for each student matching the design they drew.

The knit designs matched the drawings “perfectly,” Sunday said.

Just before winter break in December, the kindergarten teachers threw a winter party, inviting students and their parents to celebrate the holidays with cookie decorating and hot chocolate.

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“We decided to disguise it a little bit,” Sunday said.

At the end of the celebration, the teachers told the story of how the hats came to be and presented the kids with the hats they designed and Bradley knit.

A one-woman, many student project

Sunday is in her fourth year teaching kindergarten at Edwards Elementary School.

The hat project was Bradley’s idea; she came to her granddaughter at the start of the school year with the suggestion. “She said she’d be super happy to do it,” Sunday said.

Though the task was daunting, Sunday had complete faith in her grandmother.

“I’m pretty confident in my grandma. She’s amazing. She has always been able to finish projects that she sets her mind on. If she wants to do something, she will accomplish it,” Sunday said. “And she was so excited to do it, so I knew she could do it.”

In September, the kindergarten teachers gave each student a paper outline of a winter hat. The kindergarteners were told to choose the colors they thought would look good on a hat when they were coloring, but given no further details.

“We didn’t tell them why or what we were doing it for,” Sunday said. “Just told them to color within the lines, do their best job and put their name on the bottom.”

From September through Thanksgiving, Bradley worked on the hats. Though she initially planned to share the work with her knitting club, she ultimately decided to make all the hats herself.

“She said she loves having a project to focus on,” Sunday said. “She did say that she can do a hat or two a night, easily.”

Sunday offered to help Bradley procure the yarn she needed to make the dozens of hats, but it turned out Bradley had collected most of what she needed over prior years of knitting projects. “She just used the yarn she had and hardly had to buy any,” Sunday said.

The teachers instructed the students to limit the colors they used due to the massive number of hats Bradley was to knit, but one child “slipped by,” Sunday said with a laugh. “There were two colors on the bottom stripe (of the picture), and she (Bradley) still did it.”

Carrying on a ‘heartwarming’ family tradition

Bradley has been a knitter as long as Sunday can remember. Sunday said she has fond memories of all the knitted gifts she has received from her grandmother throughout her life, from sweaters to teddy bears.

“Just the most amazing things you can think of,” Sunday recalled.

 Each gift came with a signature tag: “‘Made with love by Gramas,'” Sunday said.

“Gramas” is the nickname Sunday and her sister call their grandmother.

The hats Bradley made for Sunday’s students bore a similar tag, with a twist.

“They all included the tag inside of them, but this time, it said, ‘made with love, by Ms. Sunday’s Gramas,'” Sunday said. “(It) made me want to cry.”

Bradley also knit hats for each kindergarten teacher, and assembled gift bags for the teachers to go along with the hats. “She said she wanted teachers to know that they’re appreciated,” Sunday said.

During the big reveal, the students were “super excited” to receive the knit manifestation of their hat drawings, Sunday said. “I think they were in shock that something they colored was real.”

The parents in attendance were also “amazed,” Sunday said. “I think they understood how special it was,” Sunday said.

The project provided a unique opportunity for Sunday to share the love she has experienced from her “Gramas” with the kids she teachers.

“She’s amazing, and I’ve always loved the little projects that she has made for me,” Sunday said. “It’s heartwarming to be able to pass that on to my students.”