Summer Art: Egyptian

So I passed quickly over the Mesopotamian (3500 b.c.–539 b.c.) period, mostly because I was feeling uninspired - and moved on to the Egyptian period (3100 b.c.–30 b.c.). And then I got stuck, because I really wanted to build a giant pyramid for the girls to climb around inside, but I just didn't want to deal with particle board. So thanks to a suggestion from my dad, I decided to take a step back and work on all the little parts, rather than focus on the one big part.

And so we built a small pyramid, and put a tiny sarcophagus inside, along with some jewels and a cat to protect the Pharaoh.


























































We then talked about hieroglyphics, and I showed the girls the Rosetta Stone. We talked about how important it was because it helped historians actually decode hieroglyphics. I showed Chase the hieroglyphic alphabet (http://www.virtual-egypt.com/newhtml/hieroglyphics/sample/alphabet.htm) and she took a shot at writing her name. Then she wrote Madoc's. She didn't want to stop.













































And then I threw caution to the wind and started talking to her about how the sides of the pyramids were triangles, and how there were different kinds of triangles. I found this web site that actually allows the child to drag the corners of the triangle around http://www.mathsisfun.com/triangle.html ....


























So we talked about the perimeter, how many steps it would take to walk around the outside of the Pyramid - if each side was 5 steps (Chase said, "20!").

And then we talked about how inside each triangle the angles must add up to 180 degrees (it's the Triangle house rule). And then I wrote out an equation for her, 60 + 60 + X = 180 ... which she solved quickly (I'm thinking she guessed and got it right). Then we did two more and at that point I could see she was fading fast, so we quickly changed gears.














And then I let them listen to "Walk like an Egyptian" by the Bangles and dressed them up like Cleopatra ... too much fun. Gorgeous girls!