Pyramid Construction

In 3C, we have been learning all about Ancient Egypt. This week we looked more closely at the pyramids, these were built during the time of the Old Kingdom. Pyramids were tombs where kings were buried. They had rooms inside and took many years to build.  A large number of people were employed to help build them. They were most often paid in food, shelter and clothing. 

On Monday, we studied the structure of pyramids and found out as much as we could about them before embarking on the enormous task of constructing them ourselves. The only difference was that instead of using granite bricks which weighed over a ton, we chose sugar cubes!

Well done you lot, it took you at least 20 years less than it took the Ancient Egyptians!

Ancient Egyptian Gods

After studying a unit on Ancient Egyptian Gods and Goddesses. We thought long and hard about what we would like to control if we were Pharaohs. Our lesson this week integrated the study of two forms of Egyptian art, being the Egyptian writing system of hieroglyphics and the Egyptian portraits of Pharaohs. We focused specifically on the role of these art works in communicating stories about Egyptian life and beliefs. Here's the outcome...

I'm Boon, the God of Love.

I'm Diego, the God of Fire.

I'm Dria, the Goddess of the Sky. 

I'm James, the God of Snakes.

I'm Kylen, the God of Day and Night.

I'm Jasdeep, the God of Fire. 

I'm Jing Jang, the God of Fire.

I'm Jack, the God of Disaster.

I'm Minori, the Goddess of Rainbows.

I'm Logan, the God of  Thunder and Lightening. 

I'm Merryl, the Goddess of Colour.

I'm Mervin, the God of Fruit.

I'm Minna, the Goddess of Flowers.

I'm Solytha, the Goddess of the Sun and Moon. 

I'm Tang Tang, the God of Luck and Fortune. 

Sundials

How would you keep track of time, if all of the clocks on earth suddenly disappeared? Well, 3C were about to find out! Long ago our ancient ancestors were faced with that exact problem. 

Many years ago, people noticed the difference between the dark nights and the daylight. They also realised that the sun came up over the east and went down in the west.

During the day they saw that the shadow cast by a tree, a rock, or even their own body was long early in the morning and grew shorter and shorter until it disappeared when the sun was overhead in the middle of the day. They also would have noticed that the shadow grew longer again, on the other side of the tree, as night came. 

To track this, the ancient Egyptians built tall stone towers called obelisks. Everybody could tell the time by looking at the obelisk's shadow. Obelisks were sometimes called "Cleopatra's Needles". 

People also built sundials to keep track of shadow movements. We felt as though this was the most suitable method for us to use. It didn't take us long to create our sundials using paper plates and straws. At 11.30 we took them outside and we found a spot in the sun facing north, the shadows were tracked as they moved around the clock, it was amazing!

The sundials have been sent home with children, it would be lovely to see any examples of children who have tracked their sundials through the evening too.