Showing posts with label Ancient Egypt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ancient Egypt. Show all posts

Friday, May 17, 2013

egyptian funerary design lesson plan

(The above image license belongs to the St. Louis Art Museum. 
Interested parties may view these collections at http://www.slam.org/)

Type of Lesson Plan: Object-based Lesson Plan/Reading Comprehension (Integrated Studies) 
Topic: Egyptian Funerary Design – Learn to Draw With a Grid 
Objectives:
  •  Students will be able to transfer an Egyptian tomb image by way of a “grid” drawing process.
  • Students will be able to recognize the formal characteristics of Egyptian funerary art.
  • Students will be able to fill out a graphic organizer after reading with a partner an article given to him or her in class. 
Missouri Show-Me Standards: FA 3, FA 1 
ST Standards - CA 2, 3, 1.5, 1.6, 3.5 
GLE’s:
Reading – Develop and apply skills and strategies to the reading process
H. Grade 6 – Apply post-reading skills to demonstrate comprehension of text:
  • Draw conclusions
  • Analyze text 
Strand III: Artistic Perceptions – Investigate the nature of art and discuss responses to artworks
A. Grade 6 – Discuss how different cultures have different concepts of beauty and explain how responses to artworks from various cultures are based on both personal experience and group beliefs
Strand I: Product/Performance – Communicate ideas about subject matter and themes in artworks created for various purposes
C. Grade 6 – Create an original artwork that communicates ideas about the following theme
  • Functions of Art in Culture 
Grade Level Targeted: Middle School (7-9) 
Number of Class Periods: three 55 minute class periods
Facility & Equipment Requirements:
  • Computer for power point presentation 
Resources needed for teaching lesson:
  • Power point
  • Egyptian cartoons or coloring pages depicting funerary arts from tomb walls 
Materials Per Student:
  • Article and graphic organizer per every two to three students
  • Pencils
  • Egyptian cartoon or coloring page of tomb funerary art
  • Tracing paper
  • Ruler
  • Larger white paper to transfer grid image to 
Vocabulary Terms:
  1. Funerary Art – Art used to decorate tombs with in order that the dead be honored and cared for in the next life.
  2. Masons – Masons build with stone and are also stone carvers in Egypt.
  3. Cartoon – This is a beginning sketch an artist works from in order to develop a larger more elaborate work of art.
  4. Grid – A map designed with exact calculations in order to transfer and enlarge correct proportions or a smaller image or cartoon
  5. Plaster – Plaster in Egypt was a liquid substance made from chalks/powdered clays mixed with water and glue to make a fast drying sealer/surface for ancient artists to paint into and on top of.
  6. Excavation – This is the meticulous process, conducted by archeologists, of “digging out” a site where there used to be a former city or tomb that has been buried over the passing of time.
  7. Limestone – Limestone is an ordinary sedimentary rock used as a building material in ancient Egypt. 
Literacy and Studio Activities:
  1. Students will be divided into small groups and will read together the article called “Preparation of a Painted Tomb-chapel—The Egyptian Artist and His Methods” by Dr. William C. Hayes.
  2. Students will then fill out the graphic organizer included with their packet with their small group members.
  3. Small groups will then rejoin the larger class and share with all of the students parts of their graphic organizers when called upon by the instructor.
  4. Students will then view the Egyptian power point.
  5.  On the second day students will learn to draw a Egyptian cartoon image, (I have included a ample supply of these burned to a CD with the power points,) with a “Grid System” similar to that method used by Ancient Egyptians and on the third they may color their image.
Step-by-step:
Preparing your Image: Choose a large, clear image. You may need to scan and print out a small photograph. 
  • Decide on your grid size - small enough that there is a line close to major points of the drawing (eg. each pupil and the mouth, for a portrait image) but not so small that it becomes confusing. For an 8 x 10 portrait a grid size of around half an inch up to one inch would be fine.
  • Draw the grid, making sure your lines are fine, straight and clear. Fine black marker works for lighter key images, but a dark tone may need a white gel pen. A valuable photo can be placed in a plastic sleeve or wrapped in cling film, with the grid drawn in OHP marker.
  • Mark the center intersection on the grid as a reference point.
Gridding the Paper:
  • Using a sharp, medium pencil, lightly draw a grid on your paper. A same-sized grid is the easiest, as no adjustments need to be made. You can enlarge or reduce the size, but don't do it mathematically. You are judging rough proportions by eye, not measuring distances.
  •  Darken the intersection of the center lines on the grid as a reference point. 
To draw the image, you may wish to work methodically from one side of the image, or just begin with the most obvious features.
  • Edges and strong changes of tone make clear shapes in the photograph. Where one of these shapes crosses a grid-line, count how many grid-lines from your reference point the grid-line is.
  • Judge how far the shape is along the square, then count across and mark this at the same point on the grid-line in your drawing.
  •  Do the same again, further along the same shape - for example, the line of the chin in this drawing. Mark the point where the shape meets another grid-line, then join the two, following any bumps or curves in the shape in the photograph.
  • Where a key point is away from a grid-line, such as the mouth in this example, you will need to judge the relative distance from the nearest grid-lines. In the detail image, you can see that it is estimated to be two-thirds from the lower line, and about halfway across.
  • Make sure you have drawn outlines for all the key parts of your drawing. Less defined areas, such as a patch of shade or highlight, may be roughly indicated too.
  •  Carefully erase your grid lines, repairing outlines as you go. Now you are ready to start shading your drawing. Take your time, and make sure you use a full range of tone.
Tips:
  • Make sure your pencils are sharp, and draw your outlines as lightly as possible. Don't use too hard a pencil, as they will make dents in the paper.
  • If you find it confusing knowing which grid square you are on, try numbering or color-coding them, or cover half of your image and only work on a small section at a time.
  • Use the same method to help draw a still-life, placing a grid drawn on a board behind your objects - but you'll need to close one eye when viewing to remove parallax (distortion caused by the different view from each eye).
Cleanup Time & Strategy: Allow for 5 minutes of clean up at the end of the second and third days 
Assessment:
1.) For the assessment of the literacy half of the lesson, students will be asked to transfer their graphic organizers to the chalkboard as a larger group. I will look and listen to confirm that all students have the opportunity to participate in the larger discussion and I will also collect the graphic organizers and grade them.

2.) The assessment of the art project is informal and I will look for the following things:
  •  Students should accurately mark off a grid on top of their “Egyptian Cartoon”
  •  Students should then accurately mark off a larger mathematically accurate version of the grid on their plain white drawing paper
  • Students should then color in their image with pigments similar to those they viewed previously on the power point presentation
  •  Projects should be turned in on time
Copyright: Donna Grimm, 2010

Method of Egyptian Draftsmanship.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Egyptian Jewelry Design Lesson Plan


Necklace with Egyptian Amulets may be seen in the 
collections of The St. Louis Art Museum.
Above are sample scarabs typically found in 
Egyptian jewelry design

Type of Lesson Plan: Object-based Lesson Plan/Reading Comprehension (Integrated Studies)
Topic: Egyptian Jewelry Design – Learn to bead a bracelet using stringing techniques found in ancient Egyptian jewelry collections
Objectives:
  • Students are able to identify ancient Egyptian jewelry designs compared to those designs of other ancient peoples.
  • Students are able to carve a simple bead.
  • Students are able to craft a press mold out of low-fire clay.
  • Students are able to produce a simple beading pattern with wire and seed beads.
Missouri Show-Me Standards: FA 3, FA 5, VA 1
ST Standards - CA 2, 3, 1.5, 1.6, 3.5
GLE’s:
Reading: Develop and apply skills and strategies to the reading process
H. Grade 6 – Apply post-reading skills to demonstrate comprehension of text:
  • Draw conclusions
  • Analyze text
Fine Art:
Strand III: Artistic Perceptions – Investigate the nature of art and discuss responses to artworks
A. Grade 6 – Discuss how different cultures have different concepts of beauty
Strand V: Historical and Cultural Contexts
A.    Grade 6 – Identify works from Ancient Egypt
Strand I : Product/Performance – Sculpture, ceramics, other media
A. Grade 6 – Create a relief artwork by joining two or more surfaces using a layering material
Grade Level Targeted: Middle School (7-9)
Number of Class Periods: five, 55minute class periods
Facility & Equipment Requirements:
  • Computer for power-point
  • Tables for students to work at
Resources needed for teaching lesson:
  • Power-point titled “Ancient Jewelry Design Part I” by Grimm
  • Article titled “A King’s Daughter and Her Personal Possessions”
  • Graphic organizer template for copying and a sample filled out for discussions
Materials Per Student:
  • Enough wire, dental floss and beads to complete a beaded bracelet
  • Wire snips (one set per table)
  • Copy of article “A King’s Daughter and Her Personal Possessions”
  • A blank graphic organizer
  • Pen or pencil
Vocabulary Terms:
  1. Headdress – This is a broad term for clothing for the head and it is also used to refer to jewelry for the head when the jewelry is not necessarily a crown or tiara.
  2. Scarab – The scarab is a beetle that is symbolic for eternal life or resurrection among the ancient Egyptians.
  3. Mascara – This is makeup used to specifically darken the eye lids.
  4. Inlaid – To inlay something is to set into it’s surface a decorative pattern of gems, stone, tiles, etc....
  5. Dressing Table – a smallish kind of a table used for one person to sit at and apply makeup or fix her/his hair, teeth, eyes etc....
  6. Casket – In this case a casket is a kind of small ornate box used for holding jewels but it is also a box used to bury a corpse
  7. Cartouche – In ancient Egypt, was a type of hieroglyph used to represent a person’s name
  8. Clasps – These are used as a type of brooch or fastener to hold two ends of a necklace, belt, or bracelet together
Step-by step literacy activity:
  • Students will be divided into small groups and will read together the article called “A King’s Daughter and Her Personal Possessions” by Dr. William C. Hayes.
  • Students will then fill out the graphic organizer included with their packet with their small group members.
  • Small groups will then rejoin the larger class and share with all of the students parts of their graphic organizers when called upon by the instructor.
  • After this activity a power point on ancient jewelry design will be viewed.
Step-by-step art activity: In this lesson I will teach students “how” to produce their own press mold from Sculpty clay.
  • First each student will be given a picture of an Egyptian scarab that they will reproduce in clay that I will provide along with some very tiny tools to help then carve the scarab
  • Then I will take the clay pieces home and bake these in my oven as directed on the package.
  • Then the students will be shown “how” to press their scarabs into clay in order to create a press mold for future beads. These will in turn be fired again in an oven over night.
  • Afterwards the beads may require some painting and sealing depending upon the clay that is available to me at the time.
  • After they have accomplished this process, I will then demonstrate for them the some basic stringing techniques used by jewelers.
Cleanup Time & Strategy: Allow for five minutes of clean-up time at the end of a studio lesson.
Assessment for art assignment: For the assessment of the literacy half of the lesson, students will be asked to transfer their graphic organizers to the chalkboard as a larger group. I will look and listen to confirm that all students have the opportunity to participate in the larger discussion and I will also collect the graphic organizers and grade them. These are the criteria I will be looking for when assessing the studio project:
  • The project was handed in on time.
  • The stringing is sturdy and the length is wearable
  • The clay addition is of the student’s own design
  • The molds are at least ½ inch even thickness all around for durability
Press molds made with hieroglyphic stamps and Sculpty clay.

Additional Resources for Power Point Presentations: I've included the following pngs. and descriptions given for the jewelry discovered at El-Lahun for those teachers who would like to develop a Power Point about Egyptian Jewelry. El-Lahun (alt. Illahun, Lahun, or Kahun [the latter being a neologism coined by archaeologist William Matthew Flinders Petrie]) is a village in Fayyum, Egypt. Associated with the pyramid of Senusret II (Greek: Sesostris II), it is located near the modern village of Al-Lāhūn (Arabic: اللاهون‎), and is often known by that name. Also nearby is the pyramid itself, known as the Pyramid of Lahun. The ancient name of the site was rꜣ-ḥn.t, literally, "Mouth (or Opening) of the Canal"), realized in the Fayyūmic dialect of Coptic as ⲗⲉϩⲱⲛⲉ). Read more...
 
All lessons copyrighted by Grimm, 2010
The above photograph is by the Saint Louis Art Museum, used by permission.

      the egyptian scribe and his equipment lesson plan

      Papyrus (4th Century) from Oxyrhynchus, Egypt in the St. Louis Art Museum's collection.
      This seated Egyptian scribe is in the Louvre Museum in Paris.

      Type of Lesson Plan: Object-based Lesson Plan/Reading Comprehension (Integrated Studies)
      Topic: The Egyptian Scribe and His Equipment
      Objectives:
      1. Students will be able to identify the characteristics of Egyptian writing and hieroglyphics.
      2. Students will be able to roll out clay in a uniform, consistent depth.
      3. Students will be able to discuss the differences between Egyptian writing and hieroglyphics.
      4. Students will be able to fill out a graphic organizer after reading a brief article about Egyptian scribes.
      Missouri Show-Me Standards: VA 1, FA 3, FA 5,
      ST Standards - CA 2, 3, 1.5, 1.6, 3.5
      GLE’s:
      Reading – Develop and apply skills and strategies to the reading process
      H. Grade 6 – Apply post-reading skills to demonstrate comprehension of text:
      • Draw conclusions
      • Analyze text
      Fine Art:
      Strand III: Artistic Perceptions – Investigate the nature of art and discuss responses to artworks
      A. Grade 6 – Discuss how different cultures have different concepts of beauty
      Strand V: Historical and Cultural Contexts
      A.    Grade 6 – Explain how responses to artworks from various cultures are based on both personal experience and group beliefs
      Strand I : Product/Performance – Sculpture, ceramics, other media
      A. Grade 6 – Create a relief artwork by joining two or more surfaces using a layering material
      Grade Level Targeted: Middle School (7-9)
      Number of Class Periods: two 55 minute class periods plus one day where they apply the paint, this should take only a few minutes
      Facility & Equipment Requirements:
      • Computer for power point presentation
      • Kiln or oven
      Resources needed for teaching lesson:
      • Power point “The Egyptian Scribe”
      • Samples of ancient writing
      • Stamps of hieroglyphs
      Materials Per Student:
      • Clay for tablet
      • Wooden dowels and toothpick for impressing the images
      • One rolling pin per two to three students
      • Black paint
      • Soft rubbing rag
      • Soft, large camel hair paint brush
      Vocabulary Terms:
      1. Scribe – someone who “writes” or copies language
      2. Educated Official Class – Egyptians who worked for the government or a high ranking official of the Egyptian wealthy class, these males kept books and transcribed documents/law
      3. Chancellery – a government building
      4. Kilt – In ancient Egypt this was a kind of short skirt usually made from linen
      5. Hieroglyphs – a formal method of writing in Egypt, usually reserved for kings and upper class individuals and/or applied to tombs and architecture
      6. Pith – is a spongy, soft material produced by plants
      7. Pigments – color from a wide variety of clays, stones, and plant matter that is mixed with a “carrier” (water, oil, egg) in order to make paint or textile dyes
      8. Palette –  an object that an artist or scribe uses to spread/mix paint on
      9. Papyrus – a kind of paper made from plant material
      Step-by step literacy activity:
      1. Students will be divided into small groups and will read together the article called “The Egyptian Scribe and His Equipment” by Dr. William C. Hayes.
      2. Students will then fill out the graphic organizer included with their packet with their small group members.
      3. Small groups will then rejoin the larger class and share with all of the students parts of their graphic organizers when called upon by the instructor.
      Step-by-step of art activity:
      1. Students will roll out small clay tablets to a depth of at least ½ inch
      2. Then, poke out a message or their name using a chart, located in the room, depicting hieroglyphics
      3. The instructor will then fire the clay tablets and return these the following class period
      4. Students will then brush a black paint over their clay tablet so that the indented “hieroglyphs” will be stained darker than the rest of the tablet
      5. Next, they will need to rub down the raised areas with a soft cloth
      6. Then an acrylic sealer may be applied for permanency
      Assessment of art activity: For the assessment of the literacy half of the lesson, students will be asked to transfer their graphic organizers to the chalkboard as a larger group. I will look and listen to confirm that all students have the opportunity to participate in the larger discussion and I will also collect the graphic organizers and grade them. The assessment of the art project is informal and I will look for the following things:
      • Tablets must be rolled to a consistent depth of at least ½ inch
      • Students must press into the tablet a hieroglyphic message that I can discern
      • Paint should be evenly applied to hieroglyphs only
      • Project should be turned in on time
      Cleanup Time & Strategy: Allow 5 minutes of clean up if art supplies have been used.
      Copyright: Donna Grimm, 2010

      More Lesson Plans About Egyptian Scribes
      1. Scribe School by The Seattle Art Museum
      2. Shunat the Scribe Drama Lesson
      3. Back In Time: Heiroglyphics in Ancient Egypt
      4. Writing Systems of Ancient Egypt

      All lessons copyrighted by Grimm, 2010
      The above photograph is by the Saint Louis Art Museum, used by permission.