Making Ancient Egyptian Sarcophagi
It’s official: we’ve kicked off our unit on ancient Egypt. After our first lesson covering its geography the students were very interested in making sarcophagi.
Unfortunately, the link to the pattern I found online is no longer up, so I’ve scanned the instruction sheet and images and posted them here. Before photocopying the pattern to give to the students, I used correction fluid to remove the words “lid” and “base.” I then wrote the same words small and lightly in an area that was less likely to show. This is important since later on they draw their own designs and color the pattern in.
Once the patterns were ready to go, I gave them to the students along with instructions to cut them out, mount them with a glue stick to cereal box cardboard, and then cut them out again. (If they mount the pattern on the colored side of the box the inside of the project will look better in the end.
Next, students designed and colored their lids and base using pictures from the Internet for inspiration.
When all the coloring and drawing was complete, the students got into pairs to help each other assemble the pieces. For this step we used Elmer’s glue instead of a glue stick. Before folding, we also ran over each fold line with a pencil so that it would fold more neatly and exactly.
I then gave each student a skeleton to wrap in gauze and put into their finished and dried sarcophagus. I’d say we had a mummy of a good time. What are you up to with your class?
Not sure what the spikey arm parts are for and how to put the box together. Can you give some more details on how they fold together?
You bend the spikes so you can more easily glue the parts together on a fold as you shape the head of it.