#4604. Ancient Egypt

Social Studies, level: 3-5
Posted Mon Jun 4 08:42:33 PDT 2012 by Georgia (Georgia).
Frias, Las Vegas, USA
Materials Required: computers
Activity Time: 30-45 daily

Title of the Project: Ancient Egypt
Subject/Content Area(s): Language Arts, Science, Social Studies, and Technology
Grade Level(s): 3rd to 5th
Project Time Line: 6-8 weeks

Overview or Project Sketch: activities will include creating hieroglyphics, creating the Nile River to experience flooding, playing Senet, learning about gods/goddesses & creating their own, on line activities, and a culminating project
Goals: Students will learn different aspects of social studies. Because Ancient Egypt is such a broad topic, other curriculum areas will be integrated throughout the project. These curriculum areas include anthropology, social science, art, science, math and language arts. Mainly, we will focus on how the ancient Egyptians lived their daily lives and what their major contributions to ancient civilization were.
Objectives: Students will be able to give four facts in a Power Point presentation on each the following topics: pharaohs, geography, mummification, Egyptian life, gods/goddesses, pyramids, temples, time, & writing. As a result of this project, students will be able to work cooperatively, & come away with a greater appreciation for different cultures and civilizations. Students have an understanding of the social responsibility that comes along with using the Internet, come away with a strong foundation for using Microsoft Power Point.

Standards Addressed:
Language Arts: W3.7 Conduct short research projects that build knowledge about a topic, SL3.5 Create engaging audio recordings of stories or poems that demonstrate fluid reading at an understandable pace; add visual displays when appropriate to emphasize or enhance certain facts or details.
Science: 1.2 cooperate and contribute ideas within a group, 3.3 determine and explain that soil varies from place to place and has biological and mineral components, 4.4 identify and compare needs common to most living things, 4.6 investigate and describe how changes to an environment can be beneficial or harmful to plants and animals
Social Studies: 3.1 learn about individuals in a community and discuss their contributions, 3.2 using artifacts and primary sources, investigate how individuals and families contributed to the founding and development of the local community, 3.3 learn about individuals around the world and discuss their contributions, 3.3 define ethnicity and explain that people who make contributions to their communities include those who have diverse ethnic origins, customs, and traditions
Prior Knowledge: KWL chart will be used to initiate unit. Teacher will have a lesson strictly on how to operate Power Point including creating slides, adding pictures, videos, sounds, and transitioning.
Materials: Internet (ancientegypt.co.uk, schooltube.com), laptops, computer lab, journals, pencils, Power Point, I Movie application, ELMO, books.
Management: Students will work in the classroom and the computer lab. Teacher will use laptop on overhead for much of the teaching. Mobile computer lab will also be brought into the classroom.
Instructional Procedures: Using an online program (ancientegypt.co.uk), students will learn about different components of Ancient Egypt (Egyptian life, geography, gods/goddesses, temples, pyramids, time, writing, pharaohs, and mummification). Each topic has a home page, story page, explore page, and challenge page). The Egyptian Life chapter provides information about the lives of the ancient Egyptian people. This chapter includes many images of objects from daily life. The home page introduces the chapter, placing Egyptian life in the context of the landscape of ancient Egypt and the seasonal cycles. The home page introduces the chapter, placing Egyptian life in the context of the landscape of ancient Egypt and the seasonal cycles. The story presents a day in the lives of two ancient Egyptian families, that of a nobleman and of a farmer. The stories appear side by side on the screen, and include descriptions of the daily routines and objects that would have been used by each family. This section could be used to make comparisons about daily life in ancient Egypt. The explore section illustrates aspects of the daily life of a nobleman and his family through tomb paintings. Five different clickable scenes showing ancient Egyptians celebrating, working and hunting illustrate the food, clothing, objects and customs of the ancient Egyptian nobility. This section could be used to discuss ideas about how the Ancient Egyptians lived. The challenge page has the game Senet. Senet is a game of strategy and skill that was very popular in ancient Egypt. Two players move their pieces around a board with the goal of moving all their pieces off the board before their opponent does so.
Each week a different component is the main focus. Upon completion of this unit, students will be placed in groups of 2 and complete a PowerPoint presentation. Projects will be uploaded onto schooltube.com.

Introduction: Teacher will begin this lesson with a KWL chart. Students will then pretend to board an airplane and travel to Ancient Egypt to learn about Ancient Egypt. Each day, students will travel back to Egypt to learn about a new topic.
Main activities: The main project focus is a culminating Power Point presentation. Students will present us with facts they have learned about Ancient Egypt. The teacher will facilitate the procuress what the project focus is and how the teacher will facilitate the learning experience.
Differentiation: Some students have a great understanding of Microsoft PowerPoint than others. It would be easy for these students to "take the reins" of the project and leave their partner out of the cooperative learning experience. Also, students will very easily be able to get off task if they surf the web for unrelated content. Peers will be part of the assessment by answering questions about the workload on a rubric. Rubric specifications for workload are detailed under assessment.
Conclusion: Students will receive feedback from peer on rubric. Teacher will also provide students with rubric and constructive feedback. As presentations will be uploaded to schooltube.com, students will also receive feedback from other students and teachers.

Assessment: Assessments will vary depending on the activity. The final project has a rubric that each child will be provided with. The rubric is as follows:
Rough Draft: (4) Rough draft brought on due date. Student shares with peer and extensively edits based on peer feedback. (3) Rough draft brought on due date. Student shares with peer and peer makes edits. (2) Provides feedback, and/or edits for peer, but on own rough draft was not ready for editing. (1) Rough draft is not ready for editing and did not participate in reviewing draft of peer.
Attractiveness: (4) Makes excellent use of font, color, graphics, effects to enhance the presentation. (3) Makes good use of font, color, graphics, and effects to enhance the presentation. (2) Makes use of font, color, graphics, effects, but occasionally these detract from the presentation content. (1) Use of font, color, graphics, effect, but these often distract from the presentation
Oral Presentation: (4) Interesting, well rehearsed with smooth delivery that holds the audience's attention. (3) Relatively interesting, well rehearsed with smooth delivery that holds the audience's attention.

Requirements: 6 topics must be included from pharaohs, mummification, geography, Egyptian life, gods/goddesses, pyramids, temples, time, writing (4) All requirements are met & exceeded. (3) All requirements are met. (2) One requirement was missing. (1) More than one requirement was missing.
Mechanics: (4) No misspellings or grammatical errors. (3) Three or fewer misspellings or grammatical errors. (2) Four misspellings or grammatical errors. (1) More than 4 misspellings or grammatical errors.
Content: (4) Covers topic in depth with details and examples. Subject knowledge is excellent. (3) Includes essential knowledge about the topic. Subject knowledge appears to be good. (2) Includes essential information about the topic, but there are 1-2 factual errors. (1) Content is minimal OR there are several factual errors.
Workload: (4) The workload is divided and shared equally by all team members. (3) The workload is divided and shared fairly by all team members, though workloads may vary from person to person. (2) The workload was divided, but one person is viewed as not doing his/her fair share of the work. (1) The workload was not divided OR several people in the group are viewed as not doing there fair share of the work.