Ancient Egyptians buried their dead in elaborately decorated coffins called a sarcophagus. The after- life and customs surrounding death were a large part of the Egyptian’s customs and culture. The sarcophagus were detailed with symbols, drawings & stories. The symbols were thought to give the dead spiritual protection. Desk masks are the detailed headpieces on the sarcophagus. These were placed over the mummies and were thought to help a dead person’s spirit recognize their body in the afterlife. This lesson encourages children to not only think about the level of detail that went into each sarcophagus but also to recognize similar patterns, symbols and colors. Children use a folded paper technique that will help them create a balanced asymmetrical sarcophagus.
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How cute is this painted paper crocodile? Something I love about cutting and gluing projects with kids is that their crocodiles will each be terrifically unique and have so much personality. Some will have huge mouths and tiny feet. Others will have snaggleteeth and fearsome eyes. Whatever the fun result, this is a great line and texture lesson for your kids and one that also gives them lots of opportunity to practice cutting. To tie this lesson into learning about ancient Egyptian art, we read Bill and Pete Go Down the Nile by Tomie de Paola and talked about all the ancient Egyptian art the characters found along the Nile river. ABOUT NILE CROCODILES Nile crocodiles live all over Africa and are named after one of their homes in the long Nile river that runs through Egypt. They can grow as long as 20 feet and weigh up to 1,650 pounds! Their ears, eyes and nostrils are on the top of their head so that they can see, hear and smell while they are swimming in the water. They started their crocodile pieces and they’ll finish them off tomorrow! ABOUT EGYPTIAN HIPPO SCULPTURES With the Nile River running through their land, ancient Egyptians were familiar with hippopotami. Their art included small sculptures of hippopotami. The most famous is this statuette of a hippopotamus (popularly called "William") was found in a tomb and is now housed at the MET Museum. It was molded in faience, a ceramic material made of ground quartz. Beneath the blue glaze, the body was painted with lotuses. These river plants depict the marshes in which the animal lived, but at the same time their flowers also symbolize regeneration and rebirth as they close every night and open again in the morning. The seemingly benign appearance that this figurine presents is deceptive. To the ancient Egyptians, the hippopotamus was one of the most dangerous animals in their world. The huge creatures were a hazard for small fishing boats and other rivercraft. The beast might also be encountered on the waterways in the journey to the afterlife. As such, the hippopotamus was a force of nature that needed to be propitiated and controlled, both in this life and the next. Only one of the legs in the statue is original, the other three are modern day restorations and it is believed that they were broken on purpose to protect the tomb’s owner in the afterlife. Unfortunately I didn’t get any pics of our clay molding but I’ll definitely get them painting and decorating them in our next session. This lesson was inspired by the book Mummy Cat by Marcus Ewert which tells the story of Egyptian Queen Hatshepsut’s cat who finds himself awakened from his mummified state to roam the pyramid. ABOUT CATS IN ANCIENT EGYPT In ancient Egypt, cats were linked to the cat goddess Bastet. Many households had pet cats that were important members of the family. When a beloved cat died, its owners would often shave their eyebrows to signify their grief. 😳 Sometimes after their death, cats were mummified just like people. We asked the question; “Would you shave your eyebrows for your cat??” 😂😂 The answer was of course a resounding NOOOOO!! ABOUT EGYPTIAN HEADDRESSES The headdresses, or head crowns, worn by the ancient Egyptians were reserved for royalty, including the Pharaoh, and Egyptian gods. Headdresses changed as fashion evolved in ancient Egypt. Headdresses signified importance and power and each type of headdress was worn for a specific occasion, such as a special event, a battle or a religious ceremony. The Little Hippo by Geraldine Elschner is the come-to-life story of an ancient Egyptian hippo sculpture. The book pairs perfectly with this drawing and printmaking lesson that features the cutest little blue hippo wading among the papyrus plants along the banks of the Nile river. ABOUT EGYPTIAN HIPPO SCULPTURES With the Nile River running through their land, Ancient Egyptians were familiar with hippopotami. Their art included small sculptures of hippopotami. Today, the most famous of these sculptures are the blue ceramic hippopotami that are decorated with nile river plants such as lotus flowers. In ancient Egyptian art, boats are common because they were such an important part of daily life. Often, they are depicted with flat water flowing just under the boat that is filled with a line of fish. This project captures the essence of Egyptian boat art through line and balance, and even includes making a stamp for the printed fish. ABOUT EGYPTIAN BOATS Today, there are many types of transportation on the road: cars, trucks, buses, motorcycles, bicycles, etc. In ancient Egypt, the Nile River was the ancient Egyptians’ highway, and there were many types of boats traveling up and down the river. There were fishing boats, cargo ships, funeral boats, war boats and even fancy golden boats used by the Pharaoh. In recent years, food trucks have grown in popularity. Food trucks used to only serve the working class outside of construction sites and big businesses. In Trinidad of course our staple food truck sells Doubles but you can find food trucks selling a variety of tasty food options from empanadas and tacos to rice and beans with Jamaican Jerk meats! Today, food trucks can be found in most cities, serving a wide variety of food. People of all ages can enjoy stopping for a unique meal at a food truck. Food trucks are even being hired to serve food at weddings! Have you ever eaten at a food truck? After doing a directed line drawing of the truck, they started planning out what they were going to sell and his they wound design their display! They had to make the most of their limited advertising space to attract customers and of course be sure they got the information they needed. For our last class of the term I wanted to do something really simple and enjoyable but I still wanted to make sure it was packed with some good art-theory! I decided that some good old Impressionist techniques would do the trick... but I really focused on creating tints here. Each child was given a pallet pallet with a few colours and white of course and we experimented with how adding different amounts of white changed the intensity of the colours! So they learned that the more white they added the lighter the colour became! This was so much fun and the plus side of course with all our art projects is they get a gorgeous piece of art to show off at home 😍 Jim the chimpanzee is in a terrible mood for no good reason. His friends can’t understand it—how can he be in a bad mood when it’s SUCH a beautiful day? Admittedly this story is a bit young for my Picassos, even though they certainly still have days like Jim, but I chose it because the expressions are just sooooo good! They each had to choose an expression and portray it on their monkey’s face. This was so much fun and every once in a while it’s nice to just chill with a simple drawing and have some fun! |
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