Ancient Egypt Unit Study and Lesson Plan

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I wish we could have had my Aunt Kay here to be the guest teacher for this Ancient Egypt Unit. She's an Egyptophile who has read and studied so much about that ancient culture, and she's been there (to Egypt, I mean…not to Ancient Egypt…that I know of) and she has so many cool things in her house she could have showed us. But I did write and ask her for book recommendations, so that was helpful at least.

And…ahem…I too am a bit of an Egyptophile, ever since the Rameses II exhibit came to BYU when I was just a youngster, and my mom was a docent for the exhibit. I still remember how much I loved going into the old Monte Bean Museum (remodeled for the exhibit, and almost unrecognizable inside) and peering through the mysterious low-lit rooms to see mummy cases and jewelry and scarabs and (my favorite) a goat-handled drinking vessel. It was all so fascinating! I remember getting to write a cartouche of my name in hieroglyphs, too.

There is A LOT to learn about Ancient Egypt, and each period in that impossibly-long 3000-year (!!) civilization has its own characteristics, so, as always, I feared oversimplifying or leaving out essentials. But you have to start somewhere, I guess! And we loved what we did get to learn. (And I finally mastered how to spell "Pharaoh"! Man, that word is hard to spell. I've always struggled with it.) 

Here are some general Egypt links:

My Ancient Egypt Pinterest board

Egypt coloring pages here and here

Cool high-definition scans of sone of the Joseph Smith papers Egyptian Papyri

Ancient Egypt Timeline and list of dynastic periods

Another simple illustrated timeline

Resources on the Book of Abraham, a book the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints regards (and I agree!) as scripture. 

And another good article and background on Joseph Smith's collection of Egyptian papyri.

Sounds around the world

This is a COOL website. It's a world sound map, where you can click on a site on the world map, and be taken to recordings of ambient sounds going on in that location. It's amazing! Monkeys and birds in the rainforest! Rustling leaves in forests! Penguins squawking and ice breaking up! I could spend days exploring these sounds. It makes you feel like you're really taking a trip around the world!

Listen to some singing sand dunes

This video about unexplained sounds was really cool. It freaked my kids out, though! A couple of them had bad dreams about it!

I already referenced Trevor Cox's site on the Unit Schedule page, but it's so good I'll link to it again here. It has links to recordings of some of the "sonic wonders of the world" sites the author discovered (and other sounds, like birds). Just a fascinating collection of sounds! The recording of the lyrebird is one of my favorites! But comparing a balloon popping in different sites (like in an anechoic chamber vs. a mausoleum) is pretty cool too.

Animals of Japan; Geology/Geography of Japan

We watched several "travel video"-type movies about Japan during this unit, and our favorite was probably this one from "The Little Travelers." It's made from the viewpoint of two little girls traveling (alone, they make it seem like) around Japan. Daisy and Junie especially liked it. There are funny parts where the little girls try new foods or play with other children, and it just gives a feel of "this is real life in Japan." It was cute.

We talked a lot about Japan's geology, since it is so exciting! Hot springs, volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunami…all things the children are interested in. We had watched some videos of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami during our Natural Disasters Unit (you can find links here) so we looked up those and watched some of them again. The power of those huge waves is truly amazing.

We also thought the pictures of the earthquake's aftermath, here, were very interesting.

Here is an episode of Begin Japanology about Japan's volcanoes.

The children, naturally, also loved learning about the Shinkansen or bullet train. They've loved all kinds of high-speed trains ever since learning about them during our Train Unit, but we talked more about the TGV than we did the Shinkansen at that time, so it was fun to learn more about this specifically Japanese innovation. We learned that the Shinkansen was developed by a man who made kamikaze fighter planes (with no landing gear, but with streamlined fronts suited for dive-bombing ships) during World War II. He used the streamlined nose designs from the planes to inspire the distinctive front end of the Shinkansen. This was a good video about the Shinkansen, and this video about how the workers clean the trains in only seven minutes was interesting too.

Japan has many interesting animals, but we were most interested in a couple specific ones: the Japanese Macaques or snow monkeys (the ones that like to sit in the geothermal pools—we're always seeing pictures of them) and the bunnies of Bunny Island.

We quite enjoyed this movie about the Snow Monkeys. It's your typical kind of nerdily-dramatized nature documentary (narrated by Liam Neeson). Be aware that does show some monkeys mating. And a baby monkey dies. :( But the monkeys are so cute! We loved them.

Speaking of monkeys, my friend Carrie Ann told us about her visit to this monkey park near Kyoto. It was in one of the travel videos we watched too. It looks so fun! We would love to go there.

Bunny Island is a tiny island in Japan where there is a huge colony of semi-tame rabbits. They think some rabbits were maybe left there by schoolchildren a long time ago, and then multiplied? Here is some of the story behind it. It looks like a place I would love to visit. So many bunnies! There are lots more pictures and videos:  Here, here, here,  here and even more here.

Battle Re-enactment

I thought this was a great idea, from the book The Civil War for Kids. We drew out a large map of important landmarks near a battle (we did the Battle of Chancellorsville) and then the children moved our toy soldiers around to the relevant locations, as I read to them the events of the battle. We did this on the day we talked about the biographies of Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, George Meade, and others. It seemed like a good way to realize how many decisions the General was responsible for, and how complicatedthose decisions might be (taking into account limited troops, blocked-off supply routes, river crossings, etc.).

India Unit Schedule and Lesson Plan

We really loved learning about India. What a fascinating country! We would love to go there someday. I have a sari that my aunt and uncle brought back to me on one of their trips to India, so we took turns wrapping it and putting it on, with varying levels of success.

Malachi thought it was VERY funny to have a boy wear a sari.

Abe opted for a turban instead.

A couple links that didn't fit easily anywhere else:

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=prQOdTmF8u0&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DprQOdTmF8u0

Some Indian dancing we enjoyed

http://ourlifesimplified.com/kitchen/all-recipes/homemade-yogurt-in-a-crockpot/#axzz20tQHKBNL
We made yogurt a couple different times during the unit, after much consultation and help from some friends. It was really yummy. We are still perfecting our technique, but this recipe is one I'll use in the future (when I get a new crock pot . . . I realized my crock pot must be broken after it kept  the milk at 160 degrees for FOURTEEN  HOURS without ever getting hotter. So the stove method is faster for me at the moment).  Anyway, the yogurt made delicious lassi and it tasted awesome on our coconut dal. Which I should post the recipe to also, and I will link it here when I get it up.