I was provided with the opportunity to introduce a unit about Ancient Egypt to my practicum class of Grade 7 students. Students worked collaboratively in groups to analyze tomb paintings so that they could learn more about Ancient Egypt culture and learn about techniques that were used by Ancient Egyptian artists. I wanted students to connect their own culture to the Ancient Egyptian culture that they were studying about so I had students draw a picture of their own culture using techniques used by Ancient Egyptian artists. I told students about the UNBC Art Show before they began to work. I decided to set up an in-class art show so that students could judge the top seven art work themselves. I distributed all of the art work around the classroom and labelled each piece with a number and students walked around the classroom and observed all of the art work and then anonymously voted for their top seven. I created a point scale (1st place=7 pts; 2nd =6 pts; 3rd=5 pts; 4th=4 pts; 5th=3 pts; 6th=2 pts; 7th=1 pt) to help me determine placement. Given the short time period that students had to work on their art work half of the students did finish during the class time, half of the students had to take their art work home to finish coloring and only three students out of a class of twenty eight did not complete the assigned art project in time for the art show. I wanted to post a few pictures of some the art work that was not chosen for the Art Show. The first picture reflects the culture of a student playing hockey, the second picture represents the celebration of Halloween that the student celebrates every year and the third picture represents the culture of the student's home life. The Ancient Egyptian art techniques that students used included Frontalism (shoulders are facing forwards while the rest of the body depicts the profile view), overlapping, technologies, outlining the eyes, dull colors, hieroglyphics, borders and outlining. 
6 comments:
I love the concept of connecting the students' cultures with that of ancient Egypt. I wouldn't of thought of doing that. Your studetns really managed to put a lot of their culture into their "tomb paintings". I like the ones posted here as well as the ones at the art show.
Thank you Amanda! I am glad that they turned out so well. I know that the students were very proud of themselves.
Your kids did a really great job and the ones in the art show look great. I think it was a really interesting idea for the egyptian unit. This could be adapted to fit other ancient cultures studied in grade 7.
Thanks Meg!
Wow Sherri looks like the lessons turned out well. I used an Egyptian theme for my unit plan and I was curious on how they would turn out. I'm really impressed with how they turned out.
Thanks Trevor! I know that we discussed it in our groups before we headed out to practicum and I think that I was still a little unsure as to how I was going to introduce it to the class ... I think that providing students with the opportunity to analyze Ancient Egyptian tomb paintings and observing the Egyptian culture and the techniques used by the artists prior to this art lesson contributed to the success of the art work that the students created - art work that definitely exceeded my expectations!
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