Collect tall, round containers with lids, such as ½-gallon ice cream cartons or oatmeal boxes. Clean the containers well.
Have the children decide which head design they want for the canopic jar lids. The head design depends on the organ that is stored in each canopic jar. Instruct the kids to do research to find out which deities protected specific internal organs and what their specific head symbol was. They should come up with a picture of an example of the jar they want to make. A canopic jar for the large intestine would have a hawk head. The jar for the liver would have a human head, the jar for the stomach would have a jackal head and the lung jar would have a baboon head.
Instruct the kids to place a lump of art clay that dries in the air on top of the lids of the containers. They should smooth the clay to the edges of the lids and shape it upward in the middle. Then they will form a head shape in the middle, depending on which head they are making.
Let the lid sculptures sit for one or two days until the clay is completely dry.
Give the children paint, brushes and markers to decorate the sculptures. They should add eyes and other facial features. The decorations should look similar to the pictures they found during their research.
Tell the kids to tape construction paper around the containers. They can then add Egyptian style decorations such as hieroglyphs according to their research.