Third Grade: Egyptian Portraits

In third grade we are time traveling to Ancient Egypt!! We learned that the Ancient Egptians stored treasures in the Great pyramids and the Valley of the Kings to take with them in the afterlife. Then we learned about the Ancient Egyptian letters called Hieroglyphics and how the Pharoahs names were written in a Cartouche.

For the first part of this project, we drew two or three hieroglyphics on a 3"x5" piece of paper. Then we used golf tees to push the image through on to foam core. This will be our Stamp for the background.

We also learned about Hokusai and his painting called "The Great Wave off of Kanagawa". How Hokusai used a printmaking process called Wood Block Printing to make his prints. We will use the same techniques as Hokusai, just with different materials.

Seth drawn Lightly
on Watercolour Paper

On our printing day we utilized the same techniques as Hokusai and used the foam core plates to print with India Ink. To extend the drying time of the India Ink we used Glycerin (found in the pharmacy next to hand cream- non-toxic). We focused on the placement of our cartouches on the background. 3 across and 3 down to fill the entire paper.

Once the backgrounds were completed, we began learning about the Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt. The students were fully engaged and really enjoyed learning about the different characters of Ancient Egypt. We began drawing on Watercolour paper lightly in pencil. We learned about proportions and how to draw using the cross hair technique (drawing a + on the image and drawing a + on the watercolour paper to assist in gaging proportions and sizes).