Summer SAVY, Session 4 Day 2, Beyond the Pyramids (1st – 2nd)
Today was another great day in Beyond the Pyramids!
Read Aloud: Today I read From Here to There by Margery Cuyler and illustrated by Yu Cha Pak. Maria, the character in the book, explains her location starting with her house and ending with the universe. The book helps students understand the concept of place as it increases in size from town to state to country to continent to hemisphere to planet to galaxy. After reading this book, we looked at a map of Egypt and found Egypt on a map of the world. We found the Nile River and discussed why a civilization formed near the river.
Academic Vocabulary: Today our new language of the discipline was primary source. We played the telephone game to understand the concept of secondary sources. Our primary source text is Poem to the Nile written by an Egyptian Priest in approximately 1000 BCE. We analyzed the poem and made inferences about how the ancient Egyptians used the Nile River. Students wrote their own primary source poem about something in nature they’ve observed. You may wish to ask them about their poem. Today’s other vocabulary words are in italics in this blog post.
Academic Content: Today’s focus was the Nile River. We learned about animals that live in and around the river. We considered our location in Nashville near the Cumberland River. This prompted us to develop theories about why people developed a city in this location.
Our afternoon studies focused on agriculture. The ancient Egyptians were innovative with farming and developed early irrigation and reservoirs. We studied the calendar created by the ancient Egyptians and learned that it was developed around the schedule of the Nile Flooding. The three seasons in the farming calendar were akhet, peret, and shemu. Ask your child what happened during each season.
Civilization Simulation: To connect to students’ new knowledge of farming in ancient Egypt, today they made a plan for food for their civilization. They considered how to use the remaining food on the boat and plants/animals on the island and in the ocean to feed the fifty people. They drew a map of the island with their plan for food on the map.
Wednesday Preview: Tomorrow we will learn about hieroglyphics and numerals developed by ancient Egyptians. Students will learn how the Rosetta Stone helped Egyptologists find meaning in the symbols they studied. Students will have the chance to try their hand at being a scribe. They will also learn about other jobs in this civilization.
We look forward to seeing everyone again in the morning!