Spring Saturday SAVY, Week 2, Beyond the Pyramids (K)
On Saturday, we focused on the Nile River. Our read-aloud featured two books about the Nile River. One is fictional, and the other is non-fiction. First, we looked at a map and discussed how the river benefits Egypt’s people and wild animals. We learned about current animal species that live in Egypt and acted out the Nile habitat. Students recorded information they learned in their field notebooks.
The ancient Egyptians invented several items that we use today. You can ask your child which inventions we learned about. This culture also made significant contributions to agriculture and farming. We learned about their calendar and the three seasons they used for farming. We compared farming along the Nile 2500 years ago to farming in Tennessee today.
Students used what they learned about hieroglyphics last week to carve their initials in clay. They learned the vocabulary word scribe and learned about different materials scribes wrote on. Each child got a piece of papyrus. We looked at photographs of the papyrus plant and discussed how it was used to make paper. After investigating the papyrus, students wrote ancient Egyptian numerals on it. They learned how to use place value to write different quantities. You may wish to ask your Egyptologist how inventions from ancient Egypt are still used today.
The focus of our final class will be mummies, pyramids, mythology, and Pharaohs. I look forward to our final session!
