Fifth Grade Mandalas

"Mandala"comes from the Sanskrit word for "circle"

Mandalas appear all over the world, in various forms.  The mandala commonly represents unity, the circle of life or the universe.
Mandalas use Radial Balance, meaning everything comes from a center point, a circle with a center.  Think of spider webs, flowers, snowflakes; these are all examples of radial balance.

Students start with a circle. 

Divide the circle into equal sections.

        Add a repeating design. 

       And finally add color!

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Some students chose to work with a theme too:

Peace

Halloween

Cow

This is one of my favorite lessons to teach each year.  Even though it is a basic idea - radial balance, line and color - students always create such a great variety!  

- Miss Tomaso

First Grade Rainbow Fish

1st  Grade read "Rainbow Fish" by Marcus Pfister as inspiration.(http://www.amazon.com/The-Rainbow-Fish-Marcus-Pfister/dp/1558580093/ref=wp_bs_1_B00CKC8PM6_hardcover)

Our fish have rainbow bodies.  The colors are in the order of the rainbow - Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Violet.

 

We talked about emphasis - giving something importance by making it the biggest, by putting it in front or using contrast.  

Our fish are the biggest object on the paper, contrast against the blue and are placed in front of the bubbles.

 Students used shapes to make their fish.  We also painted circles on the blue paper for a background.

After drawing our fish, we cut them out and put them on the background.

Some of our fish have extras - fish friends, starfish, seaweed, even a shark and octopus!

A colorful school of fish from the 1st Grade!