Who We Are Mandalas

Transdisciplinary Theme: Who We Are

Central Idea: Beliefs and values are a part of who we are

Key Concepts: Perspective, Connection
Grade: 2

The Grade 2 students are doing a unit on Identity.  I integrated with the classroom teachers by having the kids create mandalas that represent who they are. They aren't done yet but I couldn't resist sharing.

Class One:  Timelapse video of monks creating a sand mandala

In small groups, the students then compared and contrasted mandalas from different religious traditions using a Venn diagram.

Class Two: Students drew different things in their life that made them who they are: family, country, religion, friends, hobbies, etc.  These sketches were used in their final mandala.  I made templates of quarter circles for them (these were a lot harder to do than they look!!) and they drew in the segments. I've done mandalas with 5th graders before and did it slightly differently.

This is what the quarter circles looked like once they were done drawing and going over the lines with Sharpie.  If they had a really complicated flag (like the Saudi Arabian flag) I let them cut and paste a black and white line drawing from the internet.

 I copied each of the quarter circles four times before the next class.

Class Three: Liquid watercolor-- this is where we are now.  I encouraged the kids to leave the small details alone (we'll do it in colored pencil later) and just paint the backgrounds.  More to come...