Turn an ordinary tray of sand into a beautiful desk-top garden for mediation. With just a few household items and a small tray, create your own place to rest, relax and play.
What You Need:
- Sand
- Shallow container or tray
- Fork
- Rocks, shells, small toys, flowers, etc.
What You Do:
- Add a thick layer of sand to the bottom of a container.
- Use a fork to gently draw patterns in the sand. Spirals and swirls are a creative way to create patterns. The lines might look like a ripple in water. When you’re done, simply clear the sand and start over.
- Try to relax and not think as you are drawing the lines in the sand.
- Add stones, shells, flowers and other small toys to your Zen garden.
- Wipe away the garden daily or weekly and redesign the space as an act of meditation.
Words to Use:
- Zen: Total state of focus in the mind and body.
- Meditation: The practice of emptying your mind of thoughts and feelings
- Pattern: A regularly repeated arrangement of shapes, colors, or lines on a surface.
What to Talk About:
- What do you notice when you draw with different tools?
- How does your mind feel when you create patterns in the sand?
- Describe your garden.
Change It Up:
- Put your Zen garden in a jar and put it up for display.
- Collaborate on the Zen garden as a family. Let each family member contribute.
- Take a deep breath in and on your exhale, try and draw out what you think your breath would look like in the sand.
- Create a life-size Zen garden in the sand box or at a beach. Use a garden rake or sticks to draw your lines in the sand.
- Use colored sand. Make your own by using epsom salt, a Ziploc bag and food coloring. Add food coloring to epsom salt in a Ziploc bag. Squish the salt so that it crumbles and absorbs the food coloring. Open the bag and let the salt/sand dry out.
- Add glitter to your Zen garden for some extra flair.
Learning Connections:
- Creativity
- Imagination
- Visual-Spatial Thinking
- Connecting with Nature
- Using Tools
Curriculum Connections:
- Visual Arts: K.V.1.2, K.V.2.3, K.V.3.2, K.V.3.3, 1.V.1.2, 1.V.2.1, 1.V.2.3, 1.V.3.1, 1.V.3.2, 1.V.3.3., 2.V.1.2, 2.V.1.2.1, 2.V.2.3, 2.V.3.1, 2.V.3.3, 3.V.1.2, 3.V.2.1, 3.V.2.2, 3.V.2.3