Meditation Mandalas and Valentine Hearts

Students’s stress levels are becoming higher, and art is often used as a form of stress reliever. Combing this fact with finding that our class at Southwark enjoys drawing and coloring oriented activities, we created mandalas. They were able to either color a detailed printout or make their very own mandala. They were able to let their creativity flow making these mandalas and found that art was very effective in calming them down. We took a vote in the end, and most said that this activity did help get their mind off homework and the stress they had. 

With our younger class, we decided to celebrate Valentine’s Day. We gave them each a piece of paper and asked them to draw and decorate a heart. After a couple minutes, they all passed their papers to the left, and their neighbors continued their heart drawing. By the end, they got their original drawings back and were able to see how their friends added to their art. I think this was a really fun project for them because this was a class-inclusive activity, and they were able to have a piece of art all their friends had a part in. We also made paper chain hearts. They wrote on each heart what they loved or what love meant to them. This was interesting because you could see how important their family and friends were in their life.