Heading into our last week on the topic of Ancient Egypt we have spent the last few days looking at the importance of the Nile River. Did you know that the Ancient Egyptians pretty much invented our calendar? They discovered that the Nile flooded once a year and learned to predict this by using the sun. This flooding was extremely important as it brought valuable nutrients to the soil of the surrounding land, which was used to plant crops to eat.
What better way to explore this flooding concept than to actually recreate the flooding effect ourselves? Off we headed down to our field, dug a ditch about 4m long and lined it with tinfoil to create the riverbed. We filled the bed with rocks and pebbles, created surrounding fields of soil and alongside the soil placed sand to replicate the desert. We then started pouring water into the river to see what would happen when it flooded. While this took place I told the class the story of Isis and Osiris. The Ancient Egyptians believed that the flooding was caused by a god called Isis crying because she lost her husband Osiris. Her tears caused the flooding of the Nile. As we poured more and more water into our ‘Nile’ we watched the nutrients be carried down the river and flooded onto the plains.
Tomorrow we’ll start looking at mummies and how they were created. The students might even end up looking like mummies if I can find enough toilet paper. Who knows…?
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