Exploring Ancient Egypt Class Summaries 11/4 & 11/11

Pyramid Architecture

We have been continuing our exploration of Ancient Egypt the past two weeks with a look at pyramid geometry and construction.  In class on 11/4, students drew and then built 3-D representations of pyramids using playdoh, paper, and legos. They learned through trial and error that to properly create their pyramid they would need a square base (not rectangular) and four equilateral (equal sided) triangles.

We read about the Great Pyramid in Giza which was built for the pharaoh Cheops.  See if your student can recall how many years it took workers to build the pyramid and how many three ton blocks of stone were used!

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Egyptians built a mysterious monument shaped with a man's head and a lion's body - The Great Sphinx - perhaps to watch over and protect the pyramid site?

 We also discussed that pyramids were created with special features to serve as burial sites for pharaohs, and that pharaohs were buried with many belongings and treasures which attracted grave robbers.  

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Designing a Sledge

The ancient Egyptians used a simple machine called a sledge to move the heavy stones needed to build the pyramids. 

In our afternoon class on 11/4 we experimented with making sledges of our own.

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We turned our clocks this week so we took the opportunity to talk about time telling, both ancient and modern. We went outside and tried to tell time by looking at the sun. In the classroom we learned how to read an analog clock.

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Playing mancala and senet just like the ancient Egyptians also puts to work our math and critical thinking skills.

                          Almost to 100!

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Letters and Sounds and Words, Oh My!

In class on 11/11 we focused on language arts skills by first reviewing syllables and the short vowels sounds. 

Students then created words using word-building cards.  Each student was given a consonant card and then matched these with word family cards and ending blends to create as many words as they could.

I read two of Aesop's fables to the class and we discussed the moral from each story (The Crow and The Pitcher and Belling the Cat) .  I then suggested that students create their own fables by developing characters, a setting, plot, and lesson.  Several students decided to take on this challenge and have made great starts to their stories.  Other students opted to play language games such as Silly Sentences (creating sentences using word/phrase puzzle pieces), Story Cubes, and Spot It.  

In the coming weeks, we will continue our work with writing and story creation, with the goal of all students completing their own original story by the end of the semester!

And here are several of our "Pharaohs in Training"!

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Making Papyrus Paper

This week  (11/11) we learned that the ancient Egyptians began making paper out of papyrus around the year 4000 BCE. How long ago was that? To find the answer to that question we learned about way the BCE dates count down to 0 before the Common Era years begin. Then we used the thousand cubes from the base ten set to find the answer.

We made our own "papyrus" in class. Next week we will see how it turned out!

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