SANDPOINT — The dogs and cats at Panhandle Animal Shelter will be a little warmer this winter thanks to Farmin-Stidwell Elementary students.

The kindergartners recently teamed up with their “big buddies” in the fifth-grade class to make 37 fleece tie blankets for the animals at the shelter. While it wasn’t planned as a Giving Tuesday project, it worked out that way as the kids presented the blankets to shelter officials this week.

“I am so excited just to have young people involved in the shelter and also with giving … and getting to personally accept the gifts is so cool,” said Paige McGowan, development coordinator for PAS, who had the privilege of representing the shelter to pick up the blankets from the students at the school on Tuesday.

As the students lined up to hand her their blankets, McGowan said it was the highlight of her holiday season.

“At the shelter we have dogs and cats that come and stay with us for awhile, and these blankets are really important because they help keep them warm and comfortable,” McGowan told the kids. “Every single day they get a fresh blanket that they can sleep on, so your blankets will forever more will be a warm bed for the animals at the shelter.”

Farmin-Stidwell kindergarten teachers Nichelle Gau and Laura Olin came up with the idea earlier this year as a service learning project for the kids. They had some money left over in the kinder budget from a fundraiser last year, and Gau said she has always wanted her kindergartners to do some sort of service project for the community.

“This is something that I felt they could really relate to easily,” Gau said. “Everybody loves pets and want to help them, and the tie blankets are just a really easy thing to do with a big buddy.”

They enlisted the fifth graders and printed out the 10 steps for making the blankets, and the older students took the lead, Gau said. Olin said a woman named Sheryl, in the fabric department at Walmart, was an animal lover as well and spent an hour and a half cutting fabric for the blankets. Each blanket has two layers of fabric with multiple knots tied around the edges to hold the pieces together — no sewing required. The kids spent class time over the course of two Fridays, for a total of about three hours, making the blankets.

“They were really excited to spend the time doing it,” Olin said.

“They had so much fun, and it was a really good thing for them to do,” Gau added.

Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.