Name Mandalas

 Hooray! My 5th graders finally completed their name mandala projects! Can you believe these took 5 weeks? Some people are doing more talking than working I think....

 Students measured out half lines vertically, horizontally, and diagonally on a 12 inch square. Then they wrote their name into a triangle that was 1/8 the paper dimension. Their name was transferred and reflected around the square to create some interesting mandala shapes.

 We learned about analogous colors, and how to blend and shade with colored pencils. Their finished mandalas are beautiful- well worth the time they put into them I think.

Next up we're doing a 3D letter project to extend the exploration of type and math connections. We started off with a lesson in one point perspective to make a 3-D looking letter. After drawing their letter 3D and shading it, they had to figure out how many planes their sculpture would have. For example, a 3D letter M would have 14 planes or facets!
I'm not sure if this ties in directly with their current math lessons, but it sure doesn't hurt to make explicit cross-curricular connections whenever possible.