Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Buddhism

I am currently writing and planning my Ancient Mythologies unit using Charles Kovacs' excellent book. I was searching online for children's books on Buddhism, to follow one of the legends from India, and found this great Listmania! List on Buddhism for Kids. I would also like to add these titles by Thich Nhat Hanh:













The teacher next door had her students all make meditation beads from polymer clay and they were gorgeous; I will have to ask her how they did it. In Montessori you always have a Peace table in the classroom, so we already have a Buddha statue set up with meditation beads. We also all have yoga mats at school so that we can practice yoga.

Fly Free!, a nominee for the Maryland Black-Eyed Susan award this year, is also a great choice for this topic.




And, luckily, we have a classmate who just returned from visiting her family in India who can come in and talk about what it is like to live there!

We are doing India, Persia, Babylon, and Egypt through Mythology. (We've already covered Greek Mythology -- began the year with it.) Then Greece and Rome transition into History, as is the Waldorf way.

2 comments:

Renee said...

One more: I Once Was a Monkey: Stories Buddha Told.

Don't forget that Jakarta tales can be a topic for 2nd grade, so the 5th and 2nd grade overlap here -- nice if you are homeschooling.

Renee said...

Ah, and Jon J. Muth recently came out with another book in the Stillwater series: Zen Ghosts

I didn't realize this book existed or I would have read it at Halloween!