At the beginning of each new quarter, I teach the Personal Mandala project to my sixth grade students. This helps me to get to know them better (which is great, when I can see up to 84 sixth graders a quarter!). I love that I can use this project to allow my students to get to know me better as well - we can all learn so much about one another with the personal symbols we share in a work of art.
Communication is the main idea behind this project. I ask my students to think about what symbols they would use to communicate to their audience about who they are as individuals. Symbols that represent our past, present and future are used to design the personal mandalas. Students are tasked with thinking of and creating symbols for their favorites - hobbies, subjects, books, music, movies, food, color, etc. I also ask them to think about what they are thankful for and incorporate that into their designs as well. Some students look to their future and add symbols for where they want to go to college or what career they want as an adult. The possibilities are endless and the results are so personal, individual and unique!
Recently, I have tried to make this a more collaborative project by only giving students a quarter of a circle to design their mandala piece (rather than creating the whole mandala on their own). The mandalas are displayed together in groups of four and are stunning! Examples from multiple classes can be seen below. Enjoy!
No comments:
Post a Comment