SOTW Ancient Times – Chapter 5

The first Samarian Dictator

This was a pretty short chapter. But we did enjoy an activity.

 

What we learned:

• What a Military Dictatorship is
• The name of the two rivers that Mesopotamia is between
• Who was Sargon
• The Name of Sargon’s empire
• Why we needed a name seal
• Located Sumer on our Map

 

What we did:

Naturally we did map work. Mesopotamia was not actually on our map. (go figure) The kids enjoyed looking for the area it was in, and seeing who was the closest. I then showed them where it was on the map. (even though it wasn’t actually there)   

                   

We attempted to make name stamps out of clay. Even though we followed the directions they didn’t  work very well as stamps. The kids had fun anyway.

There was also a coloring page of Sargon that the kids each colored, as well as a Word Search containing Sumerian Inventions. 

Other Resources:

• Ancient Civilizations for Children: Ancient Mesopotamia
• Lost Civilizations Disc 1
• Ancient Mesopotamia
• How Stuff Works – Samarians

SOTW Ancient Times- Chapter 4

Mummies!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

We had a blast learning about Mummies. Christopher thinks they are awesome, and calls the zombie mummies, and Hailey thinks the whole thing is “REALLY GROSS!!!”

What we learned:

• Why Mummies were made
• How Mummies were made
• What is “The Old Kingdom of Egypt”
• The meaning of BC or BCE when it comes to dates
• How we count dates
• We talked about a timeline
• Who was Cheops
• The set up of the coffins
• We located Cairo Egypt on the map
• The Great Pyramid
• How many Pyramids were built
• What is a Sphinx

Activities:

As always we did our map work

The kids wrapped each other in toilet paper to look like a Mummy

After this we prepared Apple Pie Mummies

• http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/games/interactiveadventures/tomb-unknown-mummy/
• Mummies Around the world
• Lot’s of Mummy Resources' and games
• Preserve apple slices (We still plan on doing this activity, I will add pictures when we do)

After all of these Mummy activities, we talked about The Great Pyramid. The kids made sugar cube Pyramids. At first the had a hard time figuring out how to make them 3D. Hailey took on an extra project, and tried to create a Sphinx.

We watched this documentary about The Great Pyramid

SOTW Ancient Times- Chapter 3

For this lesson we used the Story of the World, Ancient times chapter book and Activity book.

What we Learned:

• Hieroglyphs and Cuneiform (the first writings)
• Why we may need to write things down
• Located Sumer on the map
• The Meaning of the word “Hippopotamus”. (River Horse)
• The meaning of the word “Mesopotamia” (Between two rivers)
• How clay tablets were made
• About Reed Paper the Egyptians called Papyrus
• The evolution of writings (Stone, Clay, Paper & Ink)

Our Activities:

The kids continue to enjoy the wall map.

The kids had a blast creating these clay tablets. The above photo says Mom. It is written using the Cuneiform alphabet. 

          

Our local library had this awesome Hieroglyph Stamp set. I was so excited to find it. I was not about to attempt having them carve the drawings into stone LOL!

Each child took turns stamping their name using the stamps. They were amazed at how many pictures were used to create their name.

SOTW Ancient Times- Chapter 2

This year we are using The Story of the World Ancient times with the kids for History. We are moving slowly through the book, and working on some of the activities. The first activity we did came from Chapter 2.

What we learned:

• About the first Egyptians.
• That Egypt is in Africa
• That the Nile river flows from the Mediterranean Sea through Egypt.
• That the Nile river floods every year
• That the farmers were prepared for the floods and used it to their advantage
• Were Africa, The Mediterranean Sea, and the Nile River were on the map
• Osiris and Set
• That the Egyptians beloved in lot’s of different god’s, but we serve the only true God
• What Myth is

Our activities:

The kids did a bit of geography by finding, Africa, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Nile river on the map.

  Using the instructions in The Story of the World Ancient Times activity guide, we made this model of the Nile river.

During the time that the Nile flooded the Egyptians went to higher ground.

We used aluminum foil to line the bottom of the Nile, the the kids took turns flooding it.