I've done this in my daughter's classes a few times. We never used a sewing machine; the blocks were hand stitched. For my first time helping in a class, my daughter was in 2nd grade, and we cut out colored paper pieces and glued them together to make the blocks. I then cut sashing and cornerstones and laid it all out on the garage floor to put it together. The kids were over the moon and the teacher was so pleased. It ended up hanging on the wall in the School District office for several months. The last time was a hand sewing affair where the teacher wasn't too happy. One of the boys lost his needle.
I don't know if I would survive a bunch of kids on sewing machines.