We, the students of C-5 learned the following things about Ancient Egypt:

Pyramids are the oldest stone buildings in the world. The biggest pyramid is taller than a 40 story building and can easily cover ten football fields. Pyramids are tombs for Egypt's Kings called pharaohs. Some of the blocks used to make the pyramids weighed up to 15 tons which is about 5 large elephants. The largest pyramid at Giza contains over 2 million blocks of limestone. In front of the pyramids is a statue called the Great Sphinx and it guards the pyramids in Giza. This huge statue is 240 feet long and looks like a crouching lion with a human head. There were a lot of famous kings in Egypt but the one that we found most interesting was King Tutankhamen, often called King Tut. King Tut became King Of Egypt at the age of 9 years old and died mysteriously at the age of 19. Howard Carter found the entrance to King Tut's tomb in 1922 and in it many valuable treasures. King Tut's tomb was made from almost 2,500 pounds of gold and is worth more than 13 million dollars today. Nefertiti was Queen of Egypt and ruled from 1379 to 1362 B.C. Nefertiti was the wife of King Akhenaten and together they ruled and worshiped the sun god Aten. There were many gods in Egypt but the seven gods that we studied are: Thoth, god of writing and knowledge and sometimes shown as a baboon and other times by a man with an ibis's head. Re, the sun god symbolized by a man with a falcon's head crowned with the sun disk and hold an cross (ankh) and scepter. Hathor, the cow-headed goddess of love, joy, women , childbirth and music. She was shown with a solar disk flanked by cow horns on her hear. Anubis, god the the embalmers and the dead. He was shown as a man with a jackal's head. Osiris, god and ruler of the dead or the underworld. He had a crown of reeds and ostrich feathers and carried a crook and flail. Isis was the most important goddess of all. Her job was being a mother, a wife, healing the sick and working her magical spells and charms. Horus, king of the gods and the god of light and heaven. He had the head of a falcon and carried an ankh in his right hand. Egypt has the longest river in the world, the Nile River. It provided water to irrigate the farms, transportation and served as a barrier which protected the land from invaders. The Nile is the entire length of Egypt and is also home of the largest crocodiles in the world. It is as long as two Honda Accords and weigh as much as one Honda. Ancient Egyptians believed in life after death. They believed that the dead went to a place called the "Next World," a land filled with comfort and happiness. The dead body was preserved with oils, salt, and linen wrappings. This was part of the mummification process. The internal organs were also removed and stored in canopic jars and would later be returned to the body when he or she went to the Next World. The Egyptians wrote with pictures and signs called hieroglyphics. Most of the pictures were of people, animals, plants or objects. The scribe was a person who trained to write hieroglyphics. Most of the people in Egypt were farmers and workers. They grew many kinds of fruits and vegetables. Beer was the most popular drink and bread was the staple food. The pharaoh was the highest person in the social pyramid. The priests, soldiers, government officials followed and then the merchants. At the bottom of the pyramid were the farmers and the slaves. Lower and upper Egypt was once separate kingdoms. King Menes united the two kingdoms and from then on the kings of ancient Egypt wore a double crown. The scarab beetle was a sacred symbol to the ancient Egyptians. Men wore loin cloth, short and long skirts and sandals. Women like to wear eye paint, perfume, jewelry, shawls and sheer ankle dresses. Children would go nude during the summer because it was so hot. Girls wore pigtails and boys had shaved heads except for one braided lock worn to the side. It is believed that the Egyptians ate a lot of sweets and candies because some mummies were found with rotten teeth. Our class learned many new and interesting things about Egypt. We had fun making our mummies and their little coffins making our scarab paper weights and problem solving on how to build a pyramid. We also enjoyed wrapping one of our students as a mummy and doing a simple cooking activity from an Egyptian recipe. Besides being self-directed learners, we also had to work as a team to complete our project and be quality producers. We all agreed that this was a fun project to work on.

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