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The Harmony
of Opposites
A collage or mobile Activity
Religion: Chinese
philosophy Purpose:
to reinforce and test understanding of the yin-yang concept Cognitive
Skills: comprehension, application, analysis
Learning Styles: visual,
sensing
Intelligences: visual-spatial,
bodily-kinesthetic
Use: in classroom,
as homework For: individuals,
pairs Estimated
time: 15 - 30 minutes (though reflective and global thinkers might want to
take more time as they think about and stumble across images as they go
about their daily life) Materials
needed: paper or poster board, glue, scissors, old magazines, junk
mail ads, clip art and other sources for images (ribbon, yarn, or colorful
string, and sticks optional). Note:
can be done in front of the TV, or listening to music The
Activity:
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Locate
images representing pairs of opposites - two separate images for each
pair (example: a picture of a boy and a picture of a girl)
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Print
or draw a collection of Yin-Yang symbols of varying sizes large enough
to paste your images onto. To print a Yin-Yang symbol from your
computer:
Use
font: Wingdings font and type a left bracket: [
That
should be the Yin-yang symbol: [
You
can make it as large as you need (to the limits of your paper) by typing
in the number of points in the font size window (650 points is about
the largest that will fit on a standard size piece of printer paper).
You'll
need to trim and limit the size of the images you locate due to
limitations in the size of the Yin-Yang you can print.
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Paste
each image for each pair onto a single Yin-Yang symbol so that one
image is on the dark half and the opposing image is on the light half.
Keep in mind that the dark and light halves of the Yin-Yang represent
certain principles (see web resources, below). Use your imagination to
expand on the suggestions.
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There
are at least two options as to what to do with the finished Yin-Yang
symbols with images:
1. simply glue them to a poster or larger piece of paper to make a
collage.
2. make a mobile out of them. This is a nice idea because both mobiles
and Taoism are about maintaining balance! To make a mobile,
glue two same sized Yin-Yang images back to back with string, thread,
or ribbon of varying lengths between them. Then hang your images of
varying sizes and lengths from some kind of hanger (such as a series
of sticks) to complete your mobile.
Web
resources:
About
Yin and Yang
Alternative
possibilities:
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the
Yin Yang symbol can be used with any topic which lends itself to
contrasting opposites
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a
mobile can be used for any topic related to balance (math equations,
weights and measures, musical notation, etc.)
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