Mandalas

7th Graders this week have been learning about the Buddhist and Hindu tradition of Mandala making and what they symbolize and their deep significance within both religions.

We started off with a clip from the 2011 photo-documentary 'Samsara' which shows Tibetan Monks creating a sand mandala.

After we talked more about Mandalas I showed a second clip from the movie which shows the monks destroying the Mandala only moment after completion. Students were amazed and in awe to see the monks so easily destroy something beautiful, but understood that it was a sacred ceremony in their beliefs and traditions.

We started working on the project with a practice worksheet and as we started on that each student came up one by one to add to a class mandala on the whiteboard. Below is a stop-motion video I put together of each student coming up and adding to it during class time:

7th Grade students just began outline their Mandalas today and soon will begin coloring them in and finishing them up. Here are some pictures of the process:

More to come soon!

Chúc Mừng Năm Mới

Chúc Mừng Năm Mới ! After a nice Tet holiday students are back in school and starting up some new projects in art class. 8th Grade students are just starting the first part of their drawing unit with their "Creative Value Scale" project.

This week students learned about different shading techniques and practiced pencil control to achieve different values. For the project they were challenged to create a composition which incorporates a 10 step value change within the drawing.

Once they finish their 10 values within the drawing it is up to them how they want to finish their artwork and they can use any materials they wish too. Here are some pictures of students working from this past week!