5th Grade: Zentangle Mandalas

Fifth graders started the year making mandalas and filling in the spaces with doodled designs called zentangles.

First they watched a video of Buddhist Monks making a mandala with colored sand. Several years ago, these monks came to Eau Claire and made a mandala at the university. I showed them this video of the monks making a similar mandala: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GA3su0ECdPc 

Questions we thought about included:

Why do they destroy it in the end? Is it art if they destroy it?

The students then chose to make geometric or free form mandalas. Many were enthusiastic about the geometry associated with circles. The flower mandala was popular.

We filled the sections with repeated patterns to create unity and interest. The doodled designs are called zentangles. We have several zentangle books and the internet is a great source for zentangle doodle designs. Watching the speed drawing videos on YouTube is fun and inspirational. The students did not even know at first that they were making different values with their patterns. Densely drawn patterns create darker patterns while less dense patterns appear lighter. It is a fancy way of using cross hatching to create pattern. We will look at many ways to create value this year.

See more results here in Artsonia. We will add more to Artsonia as time permits. If you want to volunteer to take photos for Artsonia, please contact me.