Second Grade Egyptian Art: Clay Cartouche & Cat Mummies

Second graders created their name or initials in a clay cartouche. We discussed Egyptian written language and they practiced on a drawing of a cartouche. They learned that when looking at hieroglyphics, if they come across a cartouche it means the person whose name is inside the cartouche is royalty. I showed them how to neatly carve into the clay to make the image or sculpt it and use the Score-Slip-Squish method to add it. They also had the option of adding a border.

I typically don't glaze with kids, as my kiln isn't in my classroom and it's two elevators to get to my kiln. BUT, I decided these beauties deserved some glaze. 

See our galleries here and here.

While our cartouches were drying and firing we created cat mummies. I found this project on Pinterest and thought it was super cute. Add in that my paper towel rolls were getting a bit out of control, and we just had to make them. I cut paper towel rolls in half instead of using TP rolls because they were a little taller. The TP rolls were just a bit too short to give them enough space to use line on the body. 

After folding the top of the roll they covered the whole roll with masking tape and then painted them either gold, bronze, or silver. 

When dry, we looked at the heavily lined eyes of traditional Egyptian style and then used permanent markers to add the face and a line design on the body. 

See our galleries here and here.