Ancient History - Weeks 5-10

Guest post by Daddy.

For weeks 1-4 click here.

 

The children and I have had an exciting and informative time getting to grips with the culture and history of Ancient Egypt. 

We have started to construct our model of the Nile. As you can see from the photographs, we have been collecting objects that reflect our Egyptian theme.

Objects the children chose to use were camels, frogs and locusts.

The desert was made of sand, we added stones for the mountains, and a strip of tin foil for the River Nile. Our pyramid was made using a plastic mould filled with a mixture of sand and PVA glue.

 

Nathanael and Tabitha deciding where to put the clay sphinx.

 

 

Together we looked at the Biblical account of the Hebrew slaves in Egypt. We talked about how they were used to construct treasure cities and other large buildings. Whilst studying the pyramids we found out about how the brick and stone would have been transported and used in Egyptian construction.

 

 

 

On week six we had an Ancient History Quiz and I was surprised how much the children had actually remembered!

Nathanael chose to write his answers to the quiz upside down, like they would be printed in a book!

 

Next we took a look at Egyptian warfare. We found out about weaponry and battle tactics, such as the use of chariots, and read Exodus 14. The children, once again, used a mixture of labelling, drawing and collaging to illustrate what we had learned in their history books.

 

 We had great fun making our own version of the Ancient Egyptian Composite Bow!

 

 

 

 

 

Having studied the pyramids, we decided to find out about Pharaohs, so we took a good look at the Kings and Queens of Egypt. We looked at the boy King Tutankhamun, Thuthmose III and Queens like Hatshepsut who dressed like a man, even down to the false beard!

 

 

We also watched a couple of videos clips that reflected the pomp and splendour of Egyptian royalty, such as The Royal Procession from the classic Polish movie "Faraon" by Kawalerowicz... 

 

 

...and this evocative scene from the epic film "Cleopatra," starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

 

 

I decided that it would be good if we could link our History project into our daily Bible Study that we do together as a family. As coincidence would have it, we just happened to be studying the book of Genesis, which tells the account of the sons of Jacob and how they ended up following their brother Joseph into Egypt (Genesis 37-50). One of the resources that I used was "The Story of the World, History for the Classical Child. Activity Book One: Ancient Times," edited by Susan Wise Bauer. I photocopied some pages which featured the story of Joseph in a comic-strip format. The children had great fun colouring this in and sticking it in their History books.

 

We also watched a half hour video animation on the story of Joseph by Testament Films.

 

 

I divided this section of work into two parts and gave it the title, "Hebrew slaves in Egypt - Parts one and two." Part one dealt with the Jews settling in Egypt and Part two dealt with them leaving. We did a word search on the theme of the sons of Jacob (courtesy of "Story of the World," again) and...

 

 

...some colouring.

 

 

In order to be a little bit more varied in this project and keep things interesting, I incorporated a mnemonic from the book "Walk Thru the Old Testament," by Dr Bruce H. Wilkinson.

 

 

The idea is, that through a series of spoken words accompanied by actions, a person is able to retain an overview of the Biblical narrative. Here is a video of Nathanael and Tabitha having a go!

 

 

 

We also watched a video clip from "Prince of Egypt" which encapsulated the drama of Moses and the children of Israel crossing the Red Sea.

 

 



 

I really enjoy the time we spend learning together and it is very rewarding to see them excited about history.

 

"Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord,

and spake, saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously:

the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea."

Exodus 15:1