Egypt & Mummies Unit/ Making Pharaoh Masks & Barbie Mummies!

Okay so I know I am WAY behind in my keeping you all up on our homeschooling journey this year, but if I was regularly posting like I would truly like to be, I would have to question my time spent with the kids.  I seriously don't know how to find the time for this, but I am trying hard as I see it as a journaling/digital scrapbooking sort of record of what we are doing.  Allan (the geek) also enjoys it as he is off to work and misses so much of what we do.  

So here we are, covering in December something we learned in October (oh well!) ...here it is!  This has to be the funnest unit we have done this year and we learned SO MUCH!  First, I talked to the kids about the fun things we were going to do that week as we learned.  I mentioned to them how excited I was for us to make Pharaoh masks and Barbie doll mummies.  My boys were as excited as I--- but my 7 year old, Cayleigh was upset at the idea of making monsters out of pretty dolls, even after I explained we wouldn't be using hers and would pick up some at the dollar store just for this project.  It was more about the fact that "mummies were monsters" in her eyes.  When we began learning about mummies and why they did it, she came to understand that they were not monsters at all.  They were usually royalty-- well cared for and very loved people that believed by doing these things, they were protecting and preserving their bodies for the afterlife.  They did mummification out of love.  Once she realized that, she was sold.  YAY!

Next,  I found all the National Geographic Documentaries I could find on the Pharaohs, Pyramids and Mummies.  My kids are very visual learners so this really helps to set the tone for what we are learning.  I also rummaged up some books like the Magic Tree House and the Usborne Book of World History.  These books were EXACTLY what I needed to cover the basics without overwhelming with too much info for their little (but genius) minds. hehe  

I found this great free lapbook template for Ancient Egypt and assigned each of the kids different pieces to the book.  I had one draw pictures of examples for thier mini-book, another would be researching info on the computer about their mini-book, another would be cutting, folding and gluing minibooks together.  It's a team effort so we can end up with a nice take away from our unit.  I always have them sign their name on/in the mini book they did so we can later see who contributed what to each book we make. Below are some pictures of our Egypt lapbook.  We are very proud of the effort that went into this one.  

 During our unit, we had plenty of art/craft time to try to recreate some of our own Egyptian artifacts.  :-)  First, we made our very own pharaoh masks.  The kids proudly hung them in the classroom.  I don't think they are going anywhere anytime soon.  LOL
Below are the basics to how we made them (and how much fun we had making them :-) )

Logan stirring the flour paper mache mixture....

Another benefit of homeschooling...no uniforms, LOL!

Okay I had to include this one...even though my kids have NEVER seen a Friday the 13th movie, they know this mask represents a scary character named "Jason".  They were killin me with the funny re-inactments of "Jason goes to Egypt"!  LOL.  So yes, this was what I found at the dollar store to give me a base to make our pharoah masks.  We hot glued the paper cut out to the inside of it and went to town tearing and gluing strips of paper to our masks.

Yes, it was VERY messy!  But FUN, I swear!

The finished result of DAY 1.  I did use laminated placemats to help cut down some of the mess and also to give it something that would (hopefully) peel off okay the next day without doing too much damage.  

Now, just to let them dry :-)  

DAY 2:  Logan hard at work with the gold spray paint (and yes, it became an obsession...gold sprayed EVERYTHING!...we'll talk about that in another post altogether, lol)

Finished Project, 2 coats of Gold Spray paint...now (you guessed it) DRY! Yes!  Onto the hand painting...

Cayleigh begins her Diva masterpiece...

Gabe makes his tribal version...

Logan stays very traditional.

After that, we HAD to make our Barbie Mummies!  Check out our exciting step by step of that super fun process...

Then we waited 40 days...(not really, we waited 40 minutes to simulate). 

We learned after our pharaoh masks that we prefer the glue solution to the flour solution as the flour paste makes an odd smell and can attract little bugs in warm weather.  We will be using a glue/water solution for all future paper mache type projects.  

 And for my usual ending Tori post....what did Tori get herself into this week?
Dried Indian corn of course! It was our sensory table theme for the fall in our craft room and I think it's safe to say that she REALLY likes it.  :-)

Melissa & Doug Deal of the Day!

Can I just say how thrilled I am to have found this deal?! Had to share in hopes to help many of you find these great prices in time for Christmas for your little ones!  I already had the decorate cupcakes on my littlest one's list, and I've been eyeing that tiered special occasion cake since my 7 year old played with it at the Parent Teacher Store the entire time I shopped...so HALF PRICE seemed pretty great to me!  Plus I get FREE shipping with Amazon Prime.  Yes, I went a little crazy on this one!  I also found the little horses that my daughter was begging for one day.  We are going to have such a FUN Christmas!  My kids already LOVE the sets we have like the Pizza, sushi and fruit cutting sets.  They love the velcro attachements and play with them for hours in our play kitchen.  HAVE FUN, this one is TODAY ONLY!!