The Nile River was everything to the ancient Egyptians. It came to mean a lot to us, too, as we learned about Egypt.
First, we studied the geography of Egypt. We read the book, Bill and Pete Go Down the Nile by Tomie dePaola.
As we read, we made a picture in our minds' eyes,
and drew what we imagined the Nile River looked like.
We colored in a real map and learned more about the annual flooding of the river, the farming, the climate, the desert, the animals, and the plants, especially the papyrus plant.
We then made a model of the river and added some Toob toys.
The same kit was sent to our friends at home
(about half of the students were still at home)
and we all started to watch our papyrus start to grow!
Making the river with fertile soil near the shore
and the Sahara Desert sand nearby.
Let the flooding begin!
Our "papyrus" and our "crops" began to grow!
It was time to harvest.
The Egyptians were very innovative. Using a simple machine called a lever, they designed a shadoof to lift water out of the river and put it in irrigation canals.
The Navigators were innovative, also, especially after having studied simple machines. We built our own working models of shadoofs using MakerSpace supplies.
We remembered our motto: "Simple Machines make work easier."
As much as we could, we shared our ideas with our friends at home and they shared theirs with us.
Papyrus was used to make paper. The reeds were alternately layered and left to dry. We made our own papyrus using strips of brown paper bags and watered down glue.
As Ms, Frizzle says...
We did just that, and came up with some wonderful paper to write on, with hieroglyphs, of course.
See the cartouche?
The river was the highway for the ancient Egyptians.
What did they use for boats?
Papyrus, of course!
We tested our boats and they floated!
The Nile River was a gift to the Egyptians in so many ways.
Studying Egypt in such a hands-on way was a gift to us!
No comments:
Post a Comment