Our Ancient Egypt unit is in full swing. This unit is separated into the 6 cataracts of the Nile starting with the 6th and ending with the 1st. The students have all been assigned to their nomes and have begun to understand what their nomes believed in and which Gods they worshiped. In the 6th cataract the students made necklaces and a nome standard to represent each group member’s ranking within their nome. They also created a poster sized 3-D Map of the Nile with their nomes. To wrap up the 6th cataract, the students learned about different Ancient Egyptian behaviors and chose one to visually interpret. We began the 5th cataract last week. The students learned what it was like to be a scribe by sitting like one (squatting or sitting criss-cross). They had to listen to their noble and use pictures to represent what he or she read to them about papyrus. We also started practicing hieroglyphs and learning about how important they were in Ancient Egyptian culture. The students wrote their names and a message using hieroglyphs and will be doing their final copy on a cartouche.
This week we will be starting our scribal study where the students will be learning about the Egyptian number system, Egyptian Gods, Mummification, and the Book of the Dead. The students will be taking detailed notes that they can use in the Sarcophagus game that will be played next week. The Sarcophagus game will be a trivia game testing them on their knowledge of what they’ve learned during the 6th and 5th cataracts. Correct answers will move each nome closer to their ultimate destination (the Nile Delta). The students have been earning Nile Travel Points for each assignments they’ve completed. Their goal is to reach 4,145 points (the length of the Nile River).