Queen Mahamaya's Dream

The story can be found HERE.

This lesson was shared with children between the ages of 5 and 12.  That's a diverse audience.  The challenge was to keep the lesson simple enough to hold the little one's attention without boring the older children to tears.

The solution:  A play.
This story lends itself well to a dramatization because there are lots of characters involved.  The older children were all assigned roles.  As the story was narrated, they acted out the story for the younger children.

They enjoyed this activity so much that we actually did the whole play four or five times, with children switching roles.  This helped embed the story in the little one's mind while keeping my older students completely engaged.

After the story, the youngest children drew pictures of their favorite part of the story.  As they colored, the older children were prompted to discuss questions from Margaret Lisa Buschmann's book (see Resource Section).

Keep it simple.
The play was last minute idea when I realized that I would be working with both older and younger children.  I didn't have any props or costumes.  They didn't seem to mind.

I also scratched a more involved art project I had planned for the little ones.  I keep lots of blank paper and crayons on hand for emergencies like this.  By giving the tots directions to just draw their favorite part of the story, I could devote my attention to the older kids for a deeper study and application of the story.