Walk like an Egyptian

Stinkerbell's class is just starting a unit on Ancient Civilizations.  To aid in their understanding, the second-grade class took a trip to the Agyptisches Museum (Egyptian Museum) for a private tour and workshop.  I was lucky enough to be able to tag along as a chaperone and even learned a few things myself!

We left school just after 9 am.  Thankfully between the two teachers and the parent volunteers, we managed to get all 40 of the children from school, onto the bus, onto the U-Bahn, and to the museum steps.  First things first - we relaxed in the sunshine and had a quick snack.  Once we all had our energy back, we were ready to learn.  Split into two groups (along class lines), my group headed off onto the tour where we learned a lot of interesting facts about how the Egyptians created their own language and writing (hieroglyphics) and how the wrote from both left to right AND right to left so you had to pay close attention to which way the birds were facing to know where to start reading.  We talked about how they mummified their dead bodies (even those of cats) and even got to see some really mummies!  And we learned about how they prayed to Gods and Goddesses and that each one had a special power over certain groups.

 Different types of communication and different ways of carving (some carved, some in relief)

 Mummies and Sarcophagi

 After the tour, it was our turn to head to the workshop.  The kids would be making masks of their chosen God/Goddess.  Stinkerbell chose the Goddess of Children and went right to work...

Not quite finished because we ran out of time but she still looks pretty cute.

Even I got in on the act - 

 Mask borrowed from C.

The class

Done with the tour we headed outside to the lawn to enjoy our packed lunches in the warm sunshine before heading back to school in time for the assembly.  What a fun day of learning and I am so glad I got to be a part of it all!