Special Persons' Day

For this year’s Special Persons Day, our class explored the real-world concepts of goods and services, as well as needs and wants, through an engaging and collaborative economics project. Students imagined and planned their own businesses, designing products or services that addressed a specific need or want. To deepen their understanding, I invited a representative from Edelman, a global communications firm based in New York City, to speak with the class about how companies develop ideas and bring them to life through branding and strategy.

Building on this, a Hofstra University film student visited to teach the children about advertisement production and how companies often partner with people to serve as the “face” of a product launch. This led to a unique and personal twist: each student chose their “special person” (a guest they invited to the event) to star in the advertisement for their business.

On the day of the event, students and their guests rotated through a series of engaging, center-based activities tied to our unit, while each pair took turns filming their product commercial in a separate room. The result was a joyful, hands-on celebration of learning that blended entrepreneurship, media literacy, creativity, and meaningful connection with loved ones.