Our Ancient Civilization-Egypt!

Ancient Egypt!

Kindergartners entered into the Ancient Civilization theme unit with a wealth of prior information about Egypt!  Children spoke of their parent's travels, expressed reading about the gods Ka and Ba at home, and of course were very knowledgeable about the pyramids!

"In pyramids, there is gold that was put into museums"
"There is a hole inside pyramids...a dead end full of bricks with a hole in it " 

"There are torches in pyramids"

 After a bit of reading, we listed what we wanted to learn more about. 

 "Why did mummy preparers place the 'eye of osiris' patch on incisions?" 

 "Why was the heart  the only organ left inside of the mummified body originally"?

  "What is the Rosetta Stone?'

  What are" artifacts" and "papyrus"?

  We also discussed the three things that could render a mummification process unsuccessful-air, moisture, and bacteria.  Learning about ancient civilizations gives children a sense of history and our place in it;  how the lifestyles, habits, and practices of others may be similar or very different than our own;  and that "ancient" is  longer than the lifespan of their teacher!  

Creativity

Our room was all a buzz at each choice time while paint, glitter (lots of glitter), and other embellishments were placed onto our outer casings of each model of a sarcophagus.  It was fascinating to watch these decorative coffins evolve each day as Kindergartners acquired new information about them.  Mummy designs adorned the facades and included intricate sketches, line work, faces, and symbols.  

Our own shabti carved from grated, dyed, and remolded bars of soap!

Doll-like figures  called shabtis were placed alongside the mummy in the sarcophagus by the Egyptians and represented servants in the afterlife.

 Social Emotional Development

Treasure Hunters work together on a board game to acquire a prized possession!

Problem Solving

Q:  How do we erect a wooden pyramid structure?  

A:  "Reading" instructions is an excellent example of making reading useful to a Kindergartner.  They are motivated to read when it is important to them and gives benefits!  Also, studying diagrams and visual aids assist in developing a sense of different perspectives and an awareness of spatial relationships of one object to another. 

Kindergartners are also leaning how to play Mancala.  It is a  board game of strategy similar to backgammon and may have originated in Ethiopia .   It dates back to the time of the Egyptians.

Language Arts/Social Studies

Our book choices added yet another genre-"Non- Fiction" to our growing list from last month!  We discussed how non-fiction, informational, or reference books contained "factual" information vs. stories that were made up, imagined, or  "fictional."  One book, You Wouldn't Want to be a Pyramid Builder: A hazardous Job You'd Rather Not Have   by Jacqueline Morley contained information about the life of the "pyramid builder."  We learned  that not all pyramid builders were slaves but actually hired workers; that they used tools similar to the ones we use today; and that some workers labored in the quarry digging up the best rocks while others hauled these rocks up steep ramps using a tool (similar to a sled) called a "sledge." 

Gross Motor

Kindergartners were able to use their newly acquired pyramid building knowledge and physical strength to do some weight bearing of their own.  They decided that they wanted their log pile inside of the playground and began using various techniques to haul the tree parts inside the fence.  Pushing, pulling, kicking, dragging, rolling, and carrying of logs over 3 recess periods ensued.  They even used a shower curtain tarp (with a little inspiration) as a "sledge"!  Once inside the gate, Kindergartners cleverly arranged the logs vertically  to create a "fairy path"  then a" safety zone" for tag.  

Math     

One of our  Math activities began with listening to a book called Mummy Math: An Adventure in Geometry by  Cindy Neuschwander that used geometric solids  as guides to follow a map of  through a pyramid structure.  We  then reviewed three dimensional solid  shapes discussed in previous weeks.   We also learned about  the amount of "faces" of these 3 dimensional solids in comparison to  2 dimensional shapes.  We discussed in greater detail  the pyramid shape then creating our own pyramid diagrams.  

We 

also 

used rulers 

 to attempt to draft 

the strongest layout for 

placing bricks on our pyramid drafts. 

We concluded that designing a grid pattern that  

staggered brick formations generally made for  stronger  structures.

  

                                                                   Another Math activity challenged Kindergartners to  assemble a 3 dimensional pyramid using a 2 dimensional pattern.  This required more time, thought, and "out of the box thinking" then our previously constructed cone and cube structures.  Kindergartners beamed when they found out that all of their activities involved using  a form of Math  called "Geometry." 

Science

We compared the roles of a Paleontologist to an Archaeologist with one Kindergartner commenting, "They are both 'ologies' !"  We also talked about how some items  we now deem as treasures and place in museums were probably just considered  useful tools and utensils long ago.  We will be traveling to the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology on Friday to observe some of these  tools treasures, and artifacts.

 Our docent, Jean, gave an outstanding and informative tour of the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology.  Our tour included seeing a sarcophagus, shabti figures, pottery, glassware and other household items, and even a mummy of a child.   Above is a model of a wrapped mannequin.  We also observed a replica of the Rosetta stone, a piece of actual papyrus, and an ancient writing desk.

Writing  

Kindergartners assumed the role of Archaeologists  and attempted to decipher ancient writings.  We made predictions from a list of written characters and afterward discovered  that these symbols were actually our alphabet written in hieroglyphics.   We discussed how hieroglyphics was a way of writing with symbols, groups of symbols and pictures to communicate a thought or idea.  During  our writing activity, we used our new knowledge to attempt to translate our own names.  We learned that hieroglyphic words  were written phonetically and some letters such as L did not exist in the Egyptian alphabet.  We also discovered that writing in hieroglyphics is very similar to Kindergarten emergent spelling patterns- write/spell what you hear!  We also observed photographs of the Rosetta Stone and observed that of the 3 languages represented the hieroglyphs occupy the top third of the tablet and was translated by the bottom 1/3 written in Greek!