Ancient India Street Vendors
The sixth grade class spent the last week before Spring Break working tirelessly to show off what we’ve been learning about the culture of Ancient India over the third nine weeks. Students learned about different government leaders, origins of two different religions, importance of river systems, origins of languages, workings of the caste system, focuses on the treatment of humans and animals, and so much more. Then, the students were asked to come up with at least four items that they could sell during a class “Street Vendors” event on the last day before break. The goods would be sold for 25 cents a piece, so the class was hoping to raise about $11. The students created a variety of different products and services. During the week, I went around as the teacher and asked questions, helped problem solve issues students were having, walked them through the creative process, taught them other basic skills they ended up needing to complete their projects, bought some supplies, focused on quality control, and monitored their daily progress. Here are their final products:
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Ashley - made three animal pieces of wood-burning art, constructed several items of wooden jewelry, sketched and colored a symmetrical mandala, wrote and illustrated a short story about a tiger, as well as created multiple poster advertisements to hang around the school to let the student body know what to expect for the vendor event
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Cole - cooked up a curry chicken recipe and painted a tiger
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Emily - hand-crocheted colorful bracelets and keychains
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Grant - sketched symmetrical mandalas with different color schemes and painted elephants, and made two brightly colored bracelets
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Jessi - recorded herself playing the “Snake Charmer” melody on her flute, constructed two bracelets with henna patterns, and drew a symmetrical mandala on a canvas
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Josh - designed henna “tattoos” using clear sticker labels, painted symmetrical mandalas on foil and a shell using the colors of the flag of India, created a guessing game with sayings in Hindi, and made a necklace with the colors of the flag of India
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Lakelyn - painted a mandala-covered elephant, etched mandalas onto chocolates, and whipped up a batch of Indian coconut ladoo desserts
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Lincoln - carved a wooden elephant, baked a chai tea cake and spice cookies, and wrapped a color ribbon mandala
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Lucas - painted and colored symmetrical mandalas and a necklace, and decorated a batch of “cow” cookies
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Michael - made kulfi (Indian ice cream) in mandala-decorated cups and rolled Indian coconut ladoo desserts
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Nelly - painted a large elephant using cool colors (blues, greens, and purples), made a small elephant cup decoration, and decorated elephant cookies and cupcakes
Then, on the last Friday of the nine weeks, the students set up their desk carts in the front lobby and tried to persuade other JH/HS students and staff to purchase or sample goods from their cart. Many of the students sold out in the first 15 minutes of the morning! By the end of the day, the class had made $66. They couldn’t believe it! The funds from the event will now be used to purchase materials for Friology science experiments that the students will choose for the last nine weeks. Thank you to all the students and staff that helped make this project a successful learning experience!
