Ancient Egyptian Self-Portraits

               The second grade classes began studying the artifacts of Ancient Egypt in the art studio.  We took a trip to Egypt by looking at different slides of the famous pyramids, the Sphinx, and mummies.  For this lesson, the students had to create a self-portrait in the Ancient Egyptian art style.  The standard for the lesson was to use tempera paints in their artwork. 

               Getting started, I had the students compare and contrast their faces with the pictures of King Tut’s burial mask.  The students worked in groups to create a Venn diagram of their comparisons.  Venn diagrams are excellent graphic organizers that allow students to organize their comparisons and contrasts on paper.  The students have a chance to doodle ideas with this type of organization.  The Venn diagram definetely helps fit the visual learners' learning style.   Here, the students use two interlocking circles to display the contrasts and similarities. (Bizar and Daniels, p. 107).

               The students realized that the face was made of gold, it had on make-up, it had lots of jewelry, and that the mask had a hair wrap and beard wrap.  I had the students sketch out drawings of themselves as they are, then we added details to make them look like Ancient Egyptian king and queens by adding jewelry and crowns.  From there, the students sketched their final designs on the bigger paper.  The students had to write their name with the hieroglyphic alphabet as well. The final step was to paint their self-portraits with tempera paints.  The students used yellow tempera paints to make their faces look golden, like King Tut’s mask.

               The students overall had a lot of success with their designs.  The students have to remember to draw big and fill the page.  The students learned different ways to embellish their designs with details.  The students seemed to enjoy writing their short stories about what kind of king or queen they would be.  The students really were excited with drawing themselves in a different way.  The Ancient Egyptian art and artifacts captured their attention from the beginning and kept them motivated.   One thing that I could add next time is to expand the study and draw full figured self-portraits like in most Ancient Egyptian art work (face, hands , and feet would be profile). Perhaps next time I could find out if there are any museum exhibits of Egyptian art and plan a field trip for the students to compliment the lesson.  This could make the lesson more meaningful and could but more experiences for the students.


Works Cited

Bizar, Marilyn and Harvey Daniels. (2005). Teaching the Best Practice     Way.  Portland, Maine: Stenhouse Publishers.