Egyptian Exploration

Ancient Egypt invaded the Lower Elementary classroom during the month of March. We held St. Paul’s first ever “Day into Night” Cultural Exploration on March 29th to explore the life & times of Ancient Egypt.

After reading the Boxcar Children and following their journey in figuring out how to meet their fundamental needs, we found it interesting to discuss the Fundamental Needs of all humans throughout history. Students got interested in searching for pictures in magazines that helped them categorize these basic needs. They created a bulletin board display that presented the

  • Material Needs such as Food, Shelter, Clothing, Communication, Transportation, Health, and Defense or
  • Spiritual Needs like Religion and Philosophy, or Art.

This exercise generated exciting conversations about how these needs would be the same and different in other countries and throughout different periods of human history. Students took a vote and decided to study the Fundamental Needs in Ancient Egypt.

Students broke up into teams of three and chose a need to focus to on. There was a lot of interesting research and excitement about ways to represent each particular need and educate the rest of the class.

Our exploration began under the guidance of the Religion and Philosophy group. They invited the Upper Elementary students to visit the celebration and, using masks and costumes, chose to represent ancient Gods who led students on a mysterious maze using hieroglyphic clues. Our Art team made a beautiful presentation featuring photographs of ancient art then coordinated a mummy race and coached others to make Egyptian themed soap carvings. The binding force for our human needs marketplace was introduced by the Communication group – money! Students could buy goods and services from each group during a market place event. The students doing clothing decided to make jewelry out of paper plates. They made collars and bracelets and even offered makeup for Egyptian eyes. The Transportation group built a nearly life-size boat out of cardboard and gave rides down the Nile River, drawn with chalk on the pavilion. The students working on shelter taught us to make bricks out of sand, straw, and mud; one brick cost one Egyptian pound.

The three female students presenting defense first drew a coloring book filled weapons then built several different types of these weapons with sticks and stones. They created an area for weapons testing at the event. Their exploration of Health guided three first year students to brew delicious herbal teas made of mint and cilantro, which were an afterschool treat on this warm evening. Our group doing food explored all the products available and made a list of Egyptian food. With the help of teachers, they coordinated with parents to bring Egyptian snacks and food for a celebratory potluck to end the night. They surprised us with two beautiful cakes, a large lemon flavored pyramid and a delicious chocolate Sphinx.

Thanks to all the parents who attended the potluck and who helped set up, supervise, and clean up. A special thank you to the Miller family who came dressed up in Egyptian costumes and told fun stories.

It was great to have Ms. Jennifer supporting the students in this venture by coming and ending the evening with a wonderful story and song about Moses and the Pharaoh.

The best part was that the children continued to be interested in Egypt after the event was over. They are ready to explore the next culture and have the important understanding that humans all have similar needs.