Week of December 16

We had a great time singing, opening presents, and hanging out in our pajamas!

 

 

 

 

Happy Holidays from the Stingray Class!

Week of December 9

This week we spent some time finishing our research and mosaics about Ancient Egypt.  Here are some pictures of the students with their mosaics and what they wrote about Egypt. 

 

Architecture: Most pyramids collapsed if their limestone centers were removed.  A pyramid was almost always made for royal burial grounds. Pyramids are very stable structures because they have wide square bases.  Palaces were made for royals and their big groups.  Palaces took a good architectural form around the fourth millennium BC. Pyramids were being made for 1,000 years.  Egyptian architecture is a very interesting thing.

 

 

Fashion: Egyptian fashion had a lot of colors.  Ancient Egyptian clothes refers to clothes worn by the Egyptians to the end of the Neolithic Period (prior to 3100 BC). Egypt clothing was filled with gems and jewels.  Egypt fashion was meant to keep cool from the heat while looking stylish.  Egypt fashion was very beautiful.  They wore tons of diamonds and gold jewelry.  I think it is the best fashion.

 

 

Religion in Egypt: Almost all the Egyptians went to a church called Alexandria.  It was a Christian church.  A lot of people liked the church. 

 

 

Ancient Egyptian Economy: Ancient Egyptians used trading, farming, and their minds to make their lives a strenuous effort.  The ancient Egyptians depended on trading to make their money.  They had a lot of farms with livestock to trade for tools to make food.  People also collected many different minerals and gems for food.  The Egyptians had many things to trade.  The economy was made up of trading gold and wheat. 

 

 

 

Math: Egyptian numbers were simple with slashes, arches, ropes, flowers, fingers, tadpoles, and men.  They wrote up and down instead of side to side. 

 

 

Language: Ancient Egyptian was spoken for about 500 years from 2600 BC and after.  Middle Egyptian was spoken from around 2000 BC for 700 years when Late Egyptian was spoken.  Middle Egyptian made it until the first few centuries AD as a written language, and is similar to Latin and Arabic today. 

 

 

Geography: Ancient Egyptians said the land was divided into 2 parts: the red land and the black land.  The black land was the area near the Nile (the longest river in the world). The red land was the barren desert away from the Nile.  There were capital cities, but most were brief-lived. 

 

 

Warfare: They made their own weapons.  They rode in carriages.  They had bows and arrows.  They lined up in rows of 8 to fight.  They also had spears. 

 

 

Laws and Government: Ancient Egyptian punishments included impaling, being burned alive, exile, drowning or decapitation, but that is if you robbed a grave.  If you robbed someone, you returned the stolen object and paid it two times over.  Egyptians with the exception of slaves were considered equals. 

 



 

Science: The Egyptians first invented the basis of modern photography.  They also invented a lead compound that would help keep the eye healthy.  The Egyptians divided the stars into 36 decans which means groups of ten. 

 

 

Agriculture: The civilization of Ancient Egypt was indebted to the Nile River.  Sometimes it flooded.  Their farming techniques allowed them to grow crops such as wheat, barley, and industrial crops like flax and papyrus. 

 



 

Daily Life: Egyptian daily life relied on the Nile River and its annual flooding.  Farmers needed it.  The Ancient Egyptians used mud bricks to build their houses.  They grew goods that they traded for others.  Most Egyptians were farmers, field hands, scribes or craftsmen.  Some were nobles.  This was the population of Egyptians. 

 

Week of December 2nd

We had a great week after Thanksgiving.  Our field study to the Burke Museum was successful and interesting.  The students did some investigating and dating of artifacts and fossils by comparing them to different time periods in Washington history. 

 

 

The students also participated in an archaeological dig and deciphered the items found to recreate a picture of the times they were from. 

 

 

 

We also had a special delivery from the Tacoma North Rotary Club.  Every year, they give dictionaries to all third graders in the city.  The students are very excited about them.  We will be keeping them at school for now, but the students will be bringing them home at the end of the year. 

 

 

I am working hard to develop questioning skills that make the students really think about what they are reading.  Up to this point, I have taught this by asking the students to choose a question starter to answer.  This week, however, I asked the students to create their own questions based on the myths they are reading in class and to ask each other.  Here are some of the questions from the various groups.

 

Do you think Zeus was too desperate to have Hera as his wife?

Why would Zeus marry Hera if he was too scared of her and not scared of anything else?

Why do you think Zeus has to marry mortal girls?

 

How could Zeus be afraid of nothing if he was afraid of Hera's fits?

Why does Hera need a tree of immortality?

How come Io turned into a cow?

 

What does the word slyly mean?

Why does Hera get golden apples of immortality if she is already immortal?

Why did Zeus ask Hermes to do his bidding?

 

 

Is it wrong for Zeus to force Hera to marry him?

Why was Zeus in the cloud?

Why was Hera so MAD?