SARTELL (WJON News) -- A Riverview Intermediate School custodian's hobby has turned into an art project for Sartell 3rd graders. Jody Schave has a small wood shop at home and had some scrap wood he was looking for a use for.

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When Art Teacher Erin Huot was looking for a project for her 3rd-grade art class Schave thought birdhouses would be a fun project for them to decorate.

How long did it take him to make the birdhouses?

He says it took him a couple of weekends to make all the houses and thought it would encourage kids to make things on their own:

"It gives them the incentive to use their imagination maybe and start making stuff on their own, that's the only way to do it, you've got to try and keep trying."

Huot says the kids are thrilled to be decorating the houses and have lots of ideas for them:

"Their so excited! I think they like the idea of this keepsake, something unique and special, something that's theirs they can have home, share with their family. I hear a few students already talking about where they want to put it, others say I'm going to give this as a gift to my little sister so it just feels like something unique, that keepsake for the end of a really great first year here at Riverview."

She says the kids will get to take the birdhouses home and the project is giving the kids something fun to decorate but also helping them make a connection with another staff member:

"And what a great way just to connect students to staff members in our building, our community, and making that connection between one person's hobby, this love for woodworking, and something that you could keep as a keepsake so really just fun to see that connection happen with our own staff members here."

Schave made 292 birdhouses, enough for every 3rd grader to have one, and making the houses for the kids was something unusual for him to do:

"No this is the first time I've done something like this. I've sketched pictures on their whiteboard and stuff like that there but this is the first time I did a project like this."

Huot says it has been fun to see the smiles on the kids' faces and Schave's too, and they have had some discussions about other fun projects they could do in the future. See more photos below, and use this link to see additional decorated houses.

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