Summit Christian Academy Flag Project

Student Gia Lal prepares the ceiling tile for painting. It will soon enhance the hall of Summit Christian Academy.

Summit Christian Academy (SCA) teacher Thomas Roy has a special gift for making learning come alive with fun, practicality, and service. Recently, Roy and SCA teacher Rith Dok combined academics with culture in an exciting assignment for their students. For the project, they enlisted the help of parent volunteer art teacher, Iso Vernon.

About two feet wide by three feet long, they often go unnoticed hanging above your head as you walk through a hallway or into a classroom. What are these overlooked rectangles? Ceiling tiles! The fifth- through eighth-grade art class has turned these ordinary fixtures into extraordinary works of art. The ceiling tiles have been transformed into flags from different countries around the world. They are no longer overlooked; instead, they are a reason for stopping and looking over!

A stroll down the hallway at Summit Christian Academy is an interesting experience since SCA 5th- to 8th-graders have transformed ceiling tiles into the flags of different countries around the world, including the flag of Wales.

These flags are a cross-curricular project that brought math, history, English, and art together, culminating in an appealing décor and conversation starter. Each student began by picking a country’s flag and doing a report on the chosen country. They also learned how to convert the measurements of the flag from a printout of a copy to the dimensions of the ceiling tile. Once the measurement conversions were achieved, the sketching and painting of the flags began. Every completed tile was then given an honorary location to be hung on display throughout the school.

These decorated ceiling tiles symbolize many of the different countries that are represented by students and staff at SCA. Imagine walking down the hall and recognizing the flag of your country of birth or that of your ancestors! The younger students love seeing them on the ceiling and identifying the country that each flag represents.

Not only do the flags make for a more engaging ceiling, they also allowed the students to use the concepts that they learned in class to make works of art. The goal to learn and appreciate the history, culture, and, most importantly, the people of different countries was met in this project, and the students will be reminded of all that they learned with each trip down the hall.