I was kind of stumped on what art project to do for the Sahara Desert/Africa mini unit. I really wanted it to include a camel. When I think of the Sahara Desert, the camel is the first thing that comes to mind. I also love the ancient Egyptian art. So, I came up with this project that includes both those things. We searched the web for examples of ancient Egyptian art.

I wanted this project to have a worn feel to it so I tore the edges of the paper. Then, I gave him some ink from my scrapbook bins. He used a makeup sponge to smear brown ink around the edges.

Some of the examples we saw had a top & bottom border, so I asked Farm Kid1 to draw those on his paper.

Next, I asked him to draw the horizon line about a third of the way up from the bottom. I showed him how to add dimension to his pyramids and a quick way to draw the trees.

When it came time to draw the camel, I didn’t have any hints or tips. I just got out a book so he could look at a photograph of a camel. I really have no idea how to draw a camel. I think he did a pretty good job.

He used colored pencils to color in his pencil drawings.

As I talked him through the project, I drew a quickie sketch on the white board. His camel is definitely better than mine.

Now for the fun part: writing Date Palms, Camels and Pyramids in Ancient Egypt using the old Egyptian alphabet. He improvised on a few letters since the Egyptians didn’t have our same 26 letters in their alphabet. When he first started making these hieroglyphics, Farm Kid1 thought it was awesome. But, he soon got fed up making the darn bird over and over. He thought it was hard to draw.

The finished work of art. I love it!

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The Merriam-Webster dictionary describes a desert as:

arid land with usually sparse vegetation; especially: such land having a very warm climate and receiving less than 10 inches of sporadic rainfall annually

School Room

Biome pocket chart filled with desert information

Using a globe we measured the distance from Antarctica to the Sahara Desert was 8,250 miles and marked it on our map.

Left: A sunny stamp for Farm Kid1’s passport

Middle: The front of the postcard Farm Kid1 is “sending” to his dad.

Right: He also designs a stamp for the postcard and writes a short message.

Our display for the week
From our house I set out a few books, the Planet Earth DVD’s (since there is a video on the desert) and Disney’s Aladdin movie. I also set out a number of books we checked out from the library. At night I read The Missing Mummy to the boys before bed. I have never read any of these books before, and the boys seemed to enjoy it. It had just enough suspense to keep their attention and wonder what was going to happen next.

We looked through our African continent box. Farm Kid1 loves the continent boxes.

Our art project for the week.

Links to our Continents & Biomes:
North America – Temperate Rainforest
South America – Tropical Rainforest
Antarctica – Ice Cap
Africa – Sahara Desert
Australia – Coral Reef
Asia – Tundra
Europe – Deciduous Forest

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Africa is such a fun continent with its zebras, giraffes, hieroglyphics & pyramids. I would love for us to do a more in depth study of Africa. Here’s what we’ve got in the continent box so far.

Same as in the other boxes – envelopes with landmarks, animals, money & art. Flag wheels from Enchanted Learning.

A few pics from friends & family.

I printed examples of Egyptian hieroglyphs and their numbering system. I think it’s fascinating

Papers and activities printed from:
Education.com  •  Making Friends  •  Practical Pages  •  Paper Toys

Our Continent Boxes:
Africa
Antarctica
Asia
Australia
Europe
North America
South America

To learn more about our continent boxes click here.

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