King Tut's All Broken Up- Make an Egyptian Mosaic Paper Collage

Last week in art class we did a lesson on King Tut's Mask. You can find a great step by step lesson on how to draw the mask at
Art Projects for Kids.
Unfortunately quite a few of my students did not make it to class last week. So instead of letting all those kids miss that project or making the kids who came redo the project, I decided to combine it with my lesson on Roman mosaics. I ended up with some pretty terrific results and the kids all really enjoyed the project.

What you will need

8 1/2" X 11" white cardstock with 5 x 5 grid
(kids can either measure and draw out the grid or you can preprint one on
the cardstock like this one)

Pencils
Markers(regular and metallic)

Black Sharpie Markers (fine and extra fine point)
Crayons

Scissors
Glue
12" x 12" colored piece of cardstock (I like scrapbook cardstock)

Procedure

1. Start by having kids pick two colors. Use these two colors to color the outside 14 squares of the grid in an alternating pattern. There should be nine left in the center.

2. Draw King Tut in pencil in the remaining nine squares. Make Tut's face exactly in the center square and then follow the rest of the steps at Art Projects for Kids.

3. Once Tut is all drawn in kids can color him in as well as the background behind him. If they are using metallic markers have them use Sharpie to outline Tut.
Metallic markers are opaque and will cover up their pencil lines completely. They go over sharpie too so be careful.
The sharpie should make the line thicker though
so it will be easier not to cover their lines completely.
They can also add design to the border tiles
(Egyptian hieroglyphics of their names perhaps?)

4. Once everything is colored in, have them cut out the
squares along the grid lines.
If they have lost the lines because of coloring, re-pencil
in the lines using a pencil and ruler.

5. Once all the squares are cut out, arrange them
on the 12 x 12 cardstock leaving a uniform space
between each of the paper tiles.
These will be the "grout lines".

6. After the tiles are arranged to their satisfaction,
begin gluing the tiles down.

7. Once the glue is dry, using Sharpie to outline the edges of each tile can give a more dramatic look to the finished piece as can mounting the piece on another piece of larger contrasting paper as I did in my sample.

You can do quite a bit with this as an educational project. Put whatever you are studying in the center and then add design elements of what you've learned about that subject in the border tiles. If you were studying deserts you could put a cactus in the middle and then put desert animal designs on the border tiles. You are limited only by your imagination. This can be a good introduction to symbolism as well as color theory by suggesting kids use complimentary colors
or alternating warm and cool colors.

These are examples completed by two of my students.

This one was done by a 13 year old student.

This one was done by an 11 year old student.