Back to the Past

Let’s reflect on some past programs. Back in Summer 2013 I presented a program called “Discover Ancient Egypt.” This is one of the programs where I just planned too darn much! It worked out in the end, but this is where I started to realize that 2 hour programs might be the way to go.

 

The cartouche on the side reads “library.”

We started with a simple coloring activity. I usually start pretty small since I seem to get latecomers and walk-ins during the first 10-15 minutes of a program. We had these leftover Egyptian collars from another program. They were already cut out, hole punched, and glued together. We just had to color and add yarn.

Then the kids spent some time making their own hieroglyphic door hangers. They each received their own hieroglyphic alphabet sheet and a paper door hanger (which I punched out using Ellison Dies). Great in theory… but less so in practice. Half the children were too concerned about their art skills to participate, while the other half thought it was funny to write mildly rude/inappropriate things on their door hangers. (The latter was a real surprise to me! I didn't realize that kids that young did stuff like that!)

After that we went into a small science experiment. I passed out simple science logs (which I apparently didn't save), we put together our samples and filled in our initial observations. Our experiment was to see what mummified an apple the best: salt or sand. I found small sauce cups for the experiment, so each child was able to safely create and transport their two samples plus a “control” with nothing but an apple bit in it. (I’m sure their parents loved me for that!)  I really loved hearing some of the hypotheses being tossed around. My favorite was the child who reasoned that the salt would melt her apple because salt melts ice. Clever! I would have liked to hear her thoughts when she dumped out the salt and found the apple was still there.

And here’s where things got tight. I had two more activities planned, but only time for one. I decided to let the kids vote and found that they were split. One child piped in asking if we could split up into groups and do both… which is exactly what we tried. It worked pretty well, except balancing the two groups was tricky.

One group made paper pyramids, coated them in glue, and covered them in sand. I had cut out all the pyramid templates beforehand, so I thought they could fold and glue on their own. I was wrong. They needed a bit of guidance and more than two examples; but they got it eventually!

The other groups learned how to play Seega. I made my own boards and found a ton of buttons in our craft closet for them to use. I also printed out a copy of the game/instructions for them to take home. They picked up on it super fast and seemed to really love it! But they wanted to take home the game boards I made, and I didn't have enough of those for everyone.

Overall I think the kids enjoyed discussing and learning about Egypt in a hands-on way. I had one brutally honest child who informed me that the program was lame because he learned all of it in school last year (however, I'd like to point out that he still participated in everything) but a little girl rallied to my defense and told him (with all the sass a pre-teen can muster), “Well I didn't learn all this last year and I liked it!” Gotta love when your kids back you up!

 

And this is me.... best hat ever!

If I could redo this program, I would give myself 2 hours rather than 1, and I would rethink the door hangers. I don't think they were altogether a bad idea, but I think I would try to find hieroglyphic stamps and possible have pre-approved slogans.