Beavers

This year, as in year's past, Emma's teacher has labeled her student's her Beavers.  An odd choice for class mascot, I thought.  We have had other labels in year's past but none as interesting as this.  As her teacher explained on the first day of class, Beavers became her choice after watching a young man give a speech about the animal.  Some interesting facts about beavers.

-beavers live and work cooperatively together.
-beavers lodges are specifically constructed with a floor above the water level, a domed roof and at least 2 entrances.
-one beaver family can build a dam 35 feet in length in just one week.
-One gigantic beverdam can be seen from space and has been under construction since 1970.
-The beavers front teeth never stop growing.  They must continually chew to keep them filed down.
-The demand for beaver fur is one of the driving forces for exploration across this continent. Cities such as Albany, St. Louis and Mackinac were founded by the trade.
-In Britain during  the 1600's all beavers were considered property of the King.  Their pelts were highly valuable and worth 20x more than any other animal pelt.
-They were almost hunted to extinction
-they use their large flat tail to slap the water, alerting others to dangers.  This slap can be heard 1 mile away.

As you can see the beaver is a hard working animal.  It is no wonder why Emma's fourth grade teacher chose this mascot for her class.

 I wanted to come up with a Beaver inspired design, in honor of their class mascot, for an End of the Year Teacher Gift.  When my internet searching provided few results I decided to make up my own design.  I drew up a few stitches on graph paper, had it approved by Emma and ended up with decidedly perfect End of the Year gift.

This Beaver Bag comes complete with interior pockets, padded handles and a very cute beaver with green beads for eyes.

The back of the bag has an embroidered patch with the teacher's name and year.  The embroidery is bordered by Kona Snow, giving lots of room for the children to sign their names.  At least that was my intention.  Emma decided some of the boys in her class have ugly handwriting.  She would rather leave the bag blank than have the boys mess it up. LOL.