Hinduism:The Four Varnas collage

The Four Varnas
(Caste)
A collage Activity

Religion: Hinduism

Purpose: to reinforce and test understanding regarding this aspect of Hinduism

Cognitive Skills: comprehension, application, analysis

Learning Styles: visual, sensing

Intelligences: visual-spatial, bodily-kinesthetic

Use: in classroom, as homework

For: individuals, pairs, small groups

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, marker(s) to label posters.

Note: can be done in front of the TV, or listening to music

The Activity:

Begin with a piece of paper (9X12 construction or craft paper should suffice).
Divide the paper into four quadrants: fold in half and in half again, then unfold so your paper looks like this:

Separate the quadrants with wide, dark lines using a marker or colored tape.

In each quadrant paste images of people relating to one of the four varnas (keep in mind that the varnas relate to different kinds of occupations in society). If you do not remember what the different varnas are and what occupations they relate to, review your reading or lecture notes.
If your images are large or you have a lot of them and they don't fit on one piece of paper, you may tape four pieces together to make a larger poster.
Images may be cut from magazines, junk mail advertising, or any other resources you may have at hand. You can also use clip art or images you locate on the Web. Try to show several images for each varna.
When you have completed your collage, label each quadrant with the appropriate varna and each image with the occupation represented (example: "maid" in the "shudra" quadrant).

Alternative possibilities: any topic which lends itself to categories (such as kinds of animals, things associated with various countries or famous people, historical time periods, etc.)