Mar 22, 2012

Egyptian Cat Mummies

 
These simple little sculptures are my variation on the cardboard tube owls that have been floating around on blogs and on Pinterest for a while now. Who originally created them? I don't know, but here's one example of the owls at 'Qlturka'. They are so simple to make. Squash in the top of a cardboard tube (NOT a toilet roll as we are not allowed to use them for craft projects for hygiene reasons so we have to buy them unused) to make ears and then cover in paper or papier mache or in our case, masking tape.
As these grade 6 students are learning about Ancient Egypt, they appreciated the feeling of wrapping their cats in tape as if mummifying them! We looked at a few pictures of cat mummies before painting the sculptures and drawing on features and patterns in black marker.

20 comments:

  1. These came out awesome! What a great adaptation of the owl idea. Where do you buy unused tubes though?

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    1. Hi Margaurita, here in Australia we can buy them easily through our school suppliers. Not sure where you are from so I may or may not be able to help you...

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    2. Can’t you just save them up?

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    3. Anonymous: you can, but some people are worried about them being sanitary. I had a parent in a class freak out about me asking for toilet paper tubes for a recycled project.

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  2. They look fantastic Anne!
    How did you stick them to the wall display?
    Amanda

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    1. Thanks Amanda - I pinned them from the inside :)

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    2. hi Anne i wish i could meet you you are amazing

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  3. Anne, I love this idea too. Did the kids have any trouble keeping the masking tape smooth and flat? It doesn't look like it from the photos. Any special advice for wrapping?

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    1. Hi Kristyn - they found the wrapping pretty easy. We started with a few short pieces across the top before wrapping the body in long pieces of tape.

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  4. These are wonderful!
    What type of paint did you use on the masking tape?
    Robyn

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    1. Thanks Robyn. We just used student quality acrylic paint in mostly metallic colours.

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  5. Made these with my Grade 1 and 2's, they loved it! They actually looked more authentic with "bumpy" wrapping rather then being super flat.

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  6. Can't wait to try these with my Year 3 class - a simple, but effective idea. Thanks

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  7. My 8 yo daughter loved making the egyptian cat. I wanted you to know that I copied the image of the one she liked and then pasted it into a word document to print it. I only did this so, she could have a picture beside her to copy. Im not sharing this image with anyone else, nor am I posting it anywhere. Thanks so much for this awesome craft!

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  8. We did this project with in our elementary school students and the kids (and parent volunteers who helped) just loved the project! Hanging them on the wall for display with the push pins made it even more fun as they seemed to be "floating" on the wall. Thanks for the great project idea!

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  9. Thanks everyone - I'm glad everyone's having a go at this project. It's such an easy, fun one!

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  10. Going to try this with my 3rd graders... Thanks for sharing the creativity!

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  11. Children learn so much faster with craft projects connected to the subject matter. It also improves their Manuel dexterity. Great idea!!!

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