Personal Mandala

In this lesson, students learn about what a mandala is and its history/culture. A mandala is a sacred space, often a circle, which reveals some inner truth about you or the world around you. Students also learn about elements of art that are included in mandalas, such as balance, line, shape, and repetition. For this project, students create their own mandala using meaningful symbols that represent their own lives.

To begin, students learn about radial symmetry and create a design on a quarter section of their circular paper. The students are required to use at least 3 symbols that represent their lives. After that, students need to tape that down to their desk. Now, the students need to take their final mandala, lay it on top of the template, and trace the design on it. Once a quarter section is finished, the students need to rotate their mandala a quarter turn and trace the same design. They repeat this process until the full circle mandala is complete. Students can now color their mandala. On a notecard, students need to explain each symbol they used on their mandala. To finish the project, students glue their mandala and notecard to a 9x11 piece of construction paper. Remember: student name on the project! 

On my mandala the symbols represent the following:

·         Cross = strong faith

·         Pencil = love for teaching!

·         Flower = love for summer

·         Shoe = enjoy running/working out

·         6 infinity signs = 6 members of my family

Extension activities: Students can use this project to practice finding symmetry in math. Students can also use this as an introductory tool when they first begin school and are trying to get to know each other.