Year 3/4: Canopic Jars
For their second project in this half-term, the Year 3/4s are designing and making canopic jars, originally used by the ancient Egyptians to preserve the organs of a deceased person for use in the afterlife.
The lids of later jars, from the nineteenth dynasty onwards, were modelled in the form of the heads of the four sons of Horus: Hapy, Duamutef, Imsety and Qebehsenuef. The children's first task was to choose which version they were going to create and to draw their design.
We used examples of surviving Egyptian art to inspire us and many of the children decided to use hieroglyphics on the body of their jar:
'Clay Day' is always greeted with great excitement! As we use air-dry clay, the modelling has to be completed in a single lesson so the children need to have a clear idea of what their jar will look like and all the equipment needs to be ready. Aprons are an essential:
Manipulating the clay can be challenging but the children really enjoy this part of the project.
Here are some of the finished clay lids:
