Lesson plan based on Mummy Case
Create a papier mâché mummy case covered with personal symbols from students’ lives.
Skills and Focus: Studio
Subject Area: Fine Arts
Thematic Connection: Signs and Symbols, Connecting Past and Present
Grade Level: Middle School
Time Needed: 80 minutes (plus papier mâché drying time)
Objectives
• Create a three—dimensional mummy case using papier mâché.
• Recognize how the parts of the body relate to each other in three dimensions.
• Describe how artists use symbols to communicate ideas.
• Identify and depict symbols of people, events, and objects in students' lives.
Instructional Materials Needed
Stories: Who Is Inside the Case? and What Is On the Mummy Case?
Newspaper
Masking tape
Papier mâché materials (strips of paper, water, paste)
Tempera paints
Brushes
Small containers of water to rinse brushes while painting
Activity
Step 1: After watching the stories, discuss how the human body fits into the form of the mummy case. How would the arms, legs, and torso be positioned?
Step 2: Have each student make a human form in the shape of the mummy case with newspaper, paying careful attention to the position of the parts of the body. Wrap the newspaper form tightly with masking tape.
Step 3: Cover the newspaper forms with papier mâché and let the forms dry thoroughly.
Step 4: The mummy case in the story is covered with painted symbols of objects and events relating to the life of the man inside the case. Have your students think about people, objects, and events important to each of them, and then paint these personal symbols on the surfaces of their cases.
Goals
This activity meets Illinois State Goal 26: Through creating and performing, understand how works of art are produced.
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