Egyptian Cat Art

We are studying Egypt this week in Annalise's world book.  She seems to really enjoy learning about other countries.  Usually she completes the workbook page and finds the country on the world map the 1st day.  The 2nd day we usually watch a YouTube about the country.  After that it really depends on the country.  For China we read a book about the Great Wall, for Canada we matched Canadian animals to their tracks, for Cameroon we looked at a missionary's blog.  Egypt is kind of confusing.  There is Ancient Egypt, that ends and a very long period of time passes, and then there is modern Egypt.  Mostly we have focused on Ancient Egypt because it is easier to find kid friendly activities for that.  Today we made pictures of Egyptian cats and read about how Ancient Egyptians viewed cats.  (Let's just say they all belonged to Pharaoh!)

First I talked them through drawing the cat.  I copied an art project I found on an elementary school's art blog.

Then we outlined the cat in marker.  (Natalie loves to draw and her drawing is improving quickly.)

We added a horizon line and some distant pyramids and a sun.

Some of it we colored with crayons, other parts we painted in water color.

Caleb's

Natalie's - hers got very busy once she added the color.  You can still see her curly cat tail and the "claws" that she added spontaneously!  The ears are actually the part in the small purple circles.  I think the person next to the cat was supposed to be Pharaoh...or maybe a princess.  Princesses show up pretty often in Natalie's drawings!

Annalise's - she really got into the fact that Ancient Egyptians put jewelry on their cats!

Interesting trivia - when a family's resident cat (remember the cat was Pharaoh's) died, the family showed their mourning by shaving off their eyebrows!