Northeastern Intermediate Unit's 21st CCLC Program: The God's Eyes Commercial

During an outside crafting lesson using things from nature to create art, students were shown how to make Ojos de Dios. Several 6th-grade boys enjoyed the project so much that the following week, they brought in more sticks from home and asked to make more. They were then given free reign with the yarn supplies and created a pile of about 50 God’s eyes. With teacher support, students did a research project on the symbolism of the God’s eyes, wrote a “business plan,” created and gave a one-minute speech, and filmed a commercial.

It’s the kind of spontaneous learning that makes 21 CCLC such a wonderful program. Student-driven educational projects that feed into the strengths and interests of the students. And it also played to the strengths of the teachers. Each teacher involved pulled from his/her area of strength to feed into this project. It built on itself and a whole lot of learning was done.