peek into our classroom

The first nine weeks of school have come and gone and we are now in our 14th week!  Life is cruising by like a reed boat on the Nile.  I wanted to give you a peek at some of our projects from the first nine weeks studying The Books of Moses.

 

Ancient Egypt and the Egyptians way of life.

 

Ancient Egyptian reed boat diorama.

Under the cover of semi-darkness I harvested the grass from the weed grasses that grow tall along the roadside near our home. 

Our school principal was driving the getaway vehicle!  :)

 

 

On to Ancient Egypt: Pharaohs and Pryramids

 

A sweet Egyptian pyramid!

Some sugar cubes were eaten during the making of this project!

 

The Egyptian double crown.

The Egyptian double crown.  Symbolized the joining of Lower Egypt and Upper Egypt.

 

 

Sarcophagus, complete with wrapped mummy.

 A folded paper sarcophagus was cut out and colored by each student in Megan's co-op class.  A cardboard pharoah was then wrapped in linen and placed inside the sarcophagus.  Fun and easy! 

 

 

An interesting study of Ancient Egypt Polytheism

 

Sistrums, used in Egyptian worship.

To make the sistrums the kids and I used some balsam wood that we briefly soaked in hot water and then curved around a salsa jar to get the desired curve.  Next we screwed the balsam wood curve to a rectangular piece of wood that we had already attached the wooden handle to.  We purchased some heavy gauge wire from our local home improvement store, cut it to the desired length, poked through the balsam wood, added painted washers and secured the wire on the other side.  The kids then added their own unique decorations with permanent marker and Voila!

 

 

Creation Through Noah

 

Creation book, complete with fun stickers.

We jumped back to study creation instead of beginning with it since we followed the chronology of Moses' books.  Megan really enjoyed this project.  Especially the stickers.  She couldn't wait to show dad (the principal) her book as soon as he got home.

 

Early History of Mesopotamia

 

Clay pots and Sumerian votive statue.

The boys somewhat enjoyed making the clay pots.  They were tricky to manipulate until you got the hang of it.  Ethan made the votive statue as part of his presentation.  Votive statues were made in the likeness of a person and left behind to pray for the person in their absence.

 

The Royal Game of Ur

The very handsome principal helped with this project by cutting out the game boards from a piece of plywood.  I then applied a coat of paint and allowed to dry.  The kids added the designs with permanent markers.  I found wooden disks at our local craft store and spray painted some black, and left the others au natural for our game pieces.  We made our three tetrahedral dice from polymer clay.  This has become a wonderful addition to our game closet.  The kids still play from time to time. You can play the Royal Game of Ur online by clicking this link.

 

The kids and I hope you enjoyed seeing some of their work.  We're off to Greece and The Promised Land next.