Nature MandalasLast week I taught a Summer Enrichment course at my school on making Nature Mandalas. The students were enthusiastic, artistic third and fourth graders. We learned about radial symmetry to make connections with art, nature and math. I am an active proponent of helping children to appreciate our natural world through the arts. To design the mandalas, the children and I collected materials from the school yard. We combined those items with some stones I had from a trips to Maine and Cape Cod and a bucket of small shells. Please enjoy the photographs and make a mandala with your children this summer ! All you need to do is take a bag and go for a walk. The children will do the rest! We used cardboard cake rounds as a base and white Elmer's glue to attach our beautiful articles from nature. The children were amazed at ho
w many delicate plants were in our school yard and next to our pond. The two most exciting moments of our nature collection walks were when we spotted a frog in the pond and when everyone in the group found a four leaf clover! If you would like to reference some books on summer nature activities for children, your local library may have some good resources. I like the book called "Nature Crafts for Children". Also, a great book to read is "Last Child in the Woods." Please teach your children and students to be in touch with and learn to appreciate our earth so that future economic and political decisions will have a positive impact on our environment.
Melanie,
ReplyDeleteYour students artwork reminds me of a famous artist work (I can't rmember his name). I saw a documentary of this artist on television he only created artwork out of nature. He literally would work all day creating a fabulous sculpture out the environment he would surround himself with that day, ocean,mountains, rivers, etc. only to have it ruined by the weather, tides, and what not. The peices this man would create were absolutely amazing.
Your students work is great and really easy on the budget. i can tell you take much pride in your job and the works of your students.
I remember his name now Andy Goldsworthy. Wow! He has an amazing gift to make nature look like peice of Art. Check out his website http://www.morning-earth.org/ARTISTNATURALISTS/AN_Goldsworthy.html
ReplyDeleteEnjoy!
Wow, Melanie, what beautiful creations! I think it is absolutely wonderful that you're so committed to teaching your students to truly appreciate nature and to take care of it! I am always so impressed when people are able to create things- whether it be your mandalas or Aaron and his student's wood working pieces. I do not consider myself to be creative or artistic at all...about as close as I get to being artsy is when I am cooking and baking and trying to "design" wonderful dishes in my kitchen. I think mandalas and other art projects are wonderful for summer- especially when we have had so much rain and there has not been a lot of outdoor time!
ReplyDeleteKatherine, I did use Andy Goldsworthy's work in my lessons for the nature mandalas. His creations are truly AMAZING ! Have you watched any videos of him on YouTube? Most of them are clips from the documentary on him called "Rivers and Tides". Thanks so much for mention Andy's name ! I love his work!!
ReplyDeleteKylie, Surely your kitchen creations are wonderful! My mother is just like you with her cooking. She makes the most wonderful dishes without recipes. When I ask her how she made some of her meals, she can't even give me measurements. Somehow she has this intuitive sense of what is going to be delicious. That is true creativity. Yes, you DO have it !!! Thanks for writing!
ReplyDeleteI see what you mean by radial symmetry. It's amazing to see the detailed design that is found in nature and then turn it into awesome artwork using math, patterns, and creativity. That's also impressive that your students were able to find so many 4-leaf clovers. I think all this rain has helped the clovers grow an extra leaf! It makes me happy to see that you inspire your students to create outstanding works of art.
ReplyDeleteHi Melanie,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the pictures.
My daughter is too young to give it a try. However, I think it could be a good project for my family literacy class.
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ReplyDeleteMany thanks to everyone for taking time to read my piece! Dawn, great idea to focus on how children learned from a MI perspective. I use Gardner's Multiple Intelligences in much of my lesson planning. I have figured out how to teach art with more than visual techniques and how to teach language arts with more than verbal techniques. Great input. I will work on that this week.
ReplyDeleteThanks again to everyone ! Will post later in the week for your final review.