& Egypt comes to a close.

When I was in 6th grade, I got to make Egyptian Death Masks to wrap up our Egypt unit.  This was one of my very favorite memories from 6th grade.  I remember seeing the masks hang up every year and being so excited to finally study Egypt so that I could make one too.  I wanted to do something like this last year with my class BUT when my 6th grade teacher mailed the information to me, I realized it was going to be costly and take a lot of time and parent volunteers.   You see, we actually plastered our faces to get a precise mold.  If I remember correctly, we also bought all of our own supplies for the masks.  However, the Utah public education system is a lot different from Ohio's.  For example, growing up I used to buy all of my own school supplies.  In Utah, I (the teacher) purchase school supplies for my students (CRAZY!).

Last year, I just didn't see it being a possibility, so I did something else instead.  This year, I was determined to figure something out.  After a lot of brainstorming and re-vamping ideas, I ended up spending about $9 to buy Jabbawockeez masks.  Since the eyes were open and the spray paint  would have been super smooth and shiny on the masks, we ended up covering the masks with masking tape to give the mask a "cloth" effect.  I cut regular pieces of poster board in half and then each student created their own headpiece.  We did all of that in about 40 minutes (including explanation time).  I spray painted all of the masks and headpieces on my own time.  We spent a second day on these (about an hour) where the student painted their masks and headpieces (the school had paint, so this was free).  Some of the kids brought their own extra decorations (see bottom right) but I did provide "jewels" for them to glue on.

Once everything was dry, JD and I just stapled a small piece of cardstock on the top edge of the mask.  Then I put glue on the leftover piece and stuck it on the mask.  They're light enough to hang with a small tack.  Although some of them are much more artistic than others, they turned out super fun & the kids loved it!  Sometimes a good art activity is just what you need.