Mandalas

This past Saturday Bailey taught our older students about Mandalas.

"The word "mandala" is from the classical Indian language of Sanskrit. Loosely translated to mean "circle," a mandala is far more than a simple shape. It represents wholeness, and can be seen as a model for the organizational structure of life itself--a cosmic diagram that reminds us of our relation to the infinite, the world that extends both beyond and within our bodies and minds." (http://www.mandalaproject.org/)

Bailey encouraged our students to create Mandalas using a collage technique.

Some excellent adaptations that Bailey used with our kids were:

-Bailey brought a large range of books and magazines for the students to collect images from, and encouraged her "para-educators" (her peers) to help kids narrow things down and pick one or two animals to work with.

-Bailey supplied questions for her para-educators to use when working with their students.

-Bailey offered both blank Mandala's and Mandalas that already had patterns in them for the students to work with.

-Bailey brought a large range of materials for the students to work with, and gave directions to both the para-educators and students on how much to use of each.

-The para-educators did an excellent job of allowing the students to guide the project, only intervening when a student was unable to complete a task on their own.

I was very pleased to see the variety in the completed Mandalas, and that the students were able to join in Bailey's excitement about the project.