Walking by the Way

Ancient Egypt Unit Study

I determined that this year Elijah would get to choose more of his unit study topics, and he decided to start off 2nd grade with Ancient Egypt.   I hope to write some posts this year about Delight-Directed education (the philosophy we are working toward).  I can honestly say that Elijah taught himself more about Ancient Egypt than I taught him.  He knows MORE about Ancient Egypt than I do.   When you let your child have a hand in his own education, he just might surprise and delight YOU.  

I inteded to make this a series of posts, but laundry and dishes and gardening keep getting in the way of blogging, so you are only getting one (very fat) post.

Becoming an Egyptologist (or is that archaeologist?)
We started with a kit I picked up at Frye’s for about $5.   Elijah could barely breathe when he saw it in his workbox on the first day of our Ancient Egypt study. He worked on it for a long time and was happy with his finished product. 

Making a Mummy
Another fun project we did the second week of our study was to "mummify" an apple.  We also tried preserving with water (freezing) and Elijah predicted which one would be in the best shape when we checked on them a week later. 

We took three apple slices and washed/dried them  (something weird about eating an apple slice during a mummifying experiment…).

One apple gets coated in a mixture of salt and soda (about 1/4 cup of each).   Then you roll it up in some guaze. 

Another apple gets placed in a ziploc of water.

The final apple gets placed in a dish.


The apple in the water goes in the freezer while the other two go to a dark, cool place (scary!) for seven days (don’t peek!).   

Want to see our results?  Are you sure?  :)

the control apple (ew!)

the apple mummy

the frozen apple

Ziggurat Lego Model
After learning about architecture, Elijah decided to try his hand at building a (very colorful) ziggurat complete with treasures stored inside.  I had no part of this…didn’t even know it was how he was spending an afternoon.

Making a Pharaoh Mask

We followed the Pharaoh Mask instructions found at DLTK kids.  You can do the same, but here are a few tips:

1.  Make your pattern by folding a piece of posterboard in half.  You won’t see the fold after you paper mache.   Also, draw it in pencil as many times as you need until you have something you like.  You won’t see the pencil marks after the paper mache, either. 

2.  Smooth the newspaer pieces down after your student is done.  I didn’t do this for Elijah, and after we spray painted it, I saw all the lumps and bumps.  It’s okay (he doesnt’ care!), but I thought I would share that tip.

3.  Put plastic lids under the mask as it dries so it won’t stick to your work surface.  

4.  You might want to cut holes in your eyes BEFORE you paper mache.  I had a really hard time cutting the eyes out.  I think we could’ve paper mached around them easier.  I don’t know for sure.  

5.  Use a thick flat brush for painting the stripes. 

6.  Have fun!  I don’t know if Elijah will ever let me get rid of this mask! 

Ancient Egypt Notebook 

We used the Evan Moor History Pockets book to make our notebook.  I skipped some things as this book is targeted for 4th-6th graders.  I am only going to post some of the pictures (we filled an entire Bare Book).  You get lots of informational pages to print in the History Pockets book.  We pasted most of them as full pages in the notebook, but a few were folded (as simple folds or tri-folds).  

Learning about Daily Life was great (my favorite part!) 

Government, Leaders, & Occupations



Religion

Very cool mummy book that demonstrates the layering of the coffins… (cover is "Where’s My Mummy?" above)

Architecture

Courtyard Pop-up (cover pictured above "An Egyptian Courtyard"

"Elijah" in hieroglyphs

Resources Used


Evan Moor History Pockets ~ Ancient Egypt
Usborne Beginners ~ Egyptians by Stephanie Turnbull
Who Built the Pyramids? by Jane Chisholm & Straun Reid (Usborne)
Mummies and Pyramids by Mary Pope Osborne (Magic Treehouse Research)
Tutankhamen’s Gift by Robert Sabuda
Adventures in Ancient Egypt by Linda Bailey
Mummies Made in Egypt by Aliki
Egyptian Life Stickers by Dover
Safari LTD Ancient Egypt Toob
note:  Something fun I did with the Acient Egypt Toob…I put all the pieces in a workbox and told Elijah that he had to tell me how each one related to Ancient Egypt.  If he didn’t know, he had to do some research and find out.  He loved this much more than I thought he would!  I might have a little researcher on my hands. 

Links
Your Name in Hieroglyphs
Explore Ancient Egypt (includes some great printable activities!)
Ancient Egypt Paper Dali (cover image)
Pharoah Mask