Year 4 had the most fabulous day on Tuesday as we began our Humanities topic of Ancient Egypt with a Stunning Start: Egyptian Day!
Beginning our day with making our mortuary tags with our chosen Ancient Egyptian names, we met Russ who was our Workshop Host for the day. Russ told us all about where the Ancient Egyptians come in history, and that we are related to them (only about 190 generations apart!)
We had great fun working out the answers to his quiz, and then we played an Ancient Egyptian board game which was the very first “Snakes and Ladders”!
After lunch, Russ brought out his prized possessions for us to see and handle: we admired a real bronze “eye” that came from real mummified remains, that was approximately 2500 years old. For those of us that wanted to, we placed the death eye over our own eyes, looking out to the world as if we were a mummy! We handled two real scarab beetle heart protectors that were placed over the mummified remains of a pharoah, and also some precious amulets, all of which dated back to at least 3000 years ago, which Russ had collected over a period of 25 years. The final, beautiful piece that we saw was a child’s Kohl eyeliner pot: intricately designed, complete with applicator and some dried kohl left on the wand, dating back at least 2500 years.
Mummification was next – don’t worry, we didn’t use a child – Russ had his own model to help him with that. We crowned one of our year 4 family Pharoah princess and she designated roles for other children.
At the end of the workshop Russ told us a captivating story – however, he could not tell us the ending as the story had been preserved in the Museum of Alexandria many years ago, and unfortunately that museum burned down in a fire, and the ending pages of the story could not be saved. So no-one knows how the story ends! We decided to think about our own endings; who knows, one of us could be right!
What was wonderful for the teachers was that Russ commented upon the respectful behaviour of the girls, their concentration and their interesting questions.
Well done girls, we are thrilled that you enjoyed the day!
