Strathblane Raising Wider Achievement

To the Ancient Egyptians,

Wow you guys are having some major issues over this star eh! I remember a time when I was a boy and had a similar problem. It’s really not cool when you have disagreements. I do like that the person was willing to compromise, but to be honest I agree half a star doesnt sound like best work. So my advice for you is take a vote and go with the majority (that means the side that has the most votes). Sometimes in life we have to say ok I guess I will do what everyone else wants although its not always easy.

You asked some good questions about Egyptian children. The thing is I have left Egypt now so I’m afraid I can’t answer that question. However, I would suggest you had a look in some books or on the internet.

Dear 6 Gods of Egypt,

I love the word “Egyptiany”! Who made that word up? What do you mean that you need to make your poster more Egyptiany?

I’m delighted to read that you are trying to improve your work and focus on neatness. That is a good quality to have and will really help to improve your team.

Now you asked what kinds of clothes children wear in Egypt today! Great question. In Cairo you might be surprised to see children wearing similar clothes to yourselfs, however, if you were to go along the Nile, you would find people wearing different clothes. They live in mud brick houses or goatskin tents. The men wear a long flowing robe called a galabiyah and many women wear the veil. The women also wear silver and gold jewelry, necklaces, and bracelets on their wrists and ankles. There are lots of good websites and books available. I should be in Scotland towards the end of the month. Maybe we will meet then?

Hello Pharaohs 1,

Oh dear Im a little disappointed to hear that people haven’t talked to each other before puting things on the poster. I do really appreciate you being honest though. I would suggest that next time you really work hard on your communication. This will help your team and I’m sure will help you to ALL feel happier!

Now you asked a good question about fixing up the legs of your Ancient Egyptian child. I think sticking some material or paper on there might be a good idea and help you to fix up that mistake. The other alternative would be to stick paper over it and then colour it in.

See you when I return to Scotland.

Hello Pharaohs 2,
Wow you guys scared me there for a second when you were talking about taking off the hair! I hope you were just talking about your characters and not your own hair??! I think your teachers might get in trouble if you all went home with no hair!

You asked about Khufu. I was actually in Giza just before I left Egypt. You will need to let me show you my holiday snaps sometime. I have thousands…you will be bored to tears! Khufu was the son of King Sneferu and Queen Hetepheres. Unlike his father, Khufu is remembered as a cruel and ruthless pharaoh. Khufu had nine sons and he also had fifteen daughters. Can you imagine that?! Khufu came to his throne in his twenties, and reigned for about 23 years
I hope that helps you out a bit.

You were also mentioning that the cellotape was too messy. Have you considered using double sided tape? I know there is plenty in your school – its just a feeling I have!

Good luck guys!

Hello Cleopatra,

I was quite suprised when you said staring at silly people helps them to not be silly anymore. I would suggest trying to get them involved and maybe giving them jobs to do. Have you tried that? It can be quite annoying when you are trying to work in a team and some people are being silly. Why dont you really focus on teamwork this week and seeing if you can get rid of all the silliness??

You asked about what Egyptian children wear now. I was actually just passing on the same information to the 6 gods of Egypt. Are you friends with them? I’m going to share their answer with you and hopefully you are happy to share with them. In Cairo you might be surprised to see children wearing similar clothes to yourselfs, however, if you were to go along the Nile, you would find people wearing different clothes. They live in mud brick houses or goatskin tents. The men wear a long flowing robe called a galabiyah and many women wear the veil. The women also wear silver and gold jewelry, necklaces, and bracelets on their wrists and ankles. There are lots of good websites and books available. I should be in Scotland towards the end of the month. Maybe we will meet then?

When I was talking to Miss Carter and Miss Allen last night they were surprised to hear that you didnt know about having to have some writing on the poster. Have you read the brief fully? Who is your quality control checker. Make sure you read the success criteria carefully!

Good luck!

Hello Curse of the Mummy,

Glad to hear that your teamwork is going ok. It sounds like your poster is progressing well. Thats an interesting idea to show all three styles on the one child. It doesnt sound like any other group is doing that, so well done for being different.

You were saying that you needed more paper. I have sent some big rolls of paper to your teachers and they will have it specially ready for you on Monday. I believe there is extra material in your school. Have you spoken to the materials manager for your team? Next week you could send them on a search.

I agree that drawing hair can be quite tricky. That is the best thing about being a grown up really is that the times you have to draw hair get less and less. Maybe instead of drawing hair you could use some wool, then you would be kind of like a grown up!

Finally, I like your question about what Egyptian children did or do now. Boys, if your parents were farmers you might scatter seeds in the field. If you dad was a carpenter you might help him build boxes. You might have to give the animals water, chisel stone, polish pottery, or pound papyrus into paper. Girls, you might carry water from the river, baby-sit, stir cosmetics, sew or weave.

I hope that helps you out!

Ra you sound like you really know what you are doing! What a good idea to do your characters first to get a feel for them! That made me chuckle!

Now, I think I know how you are feeling about the person going off on their own. I remember situations quite similar to this when I was a boy at school. There are some people who find it really hard to work as part of a team. Sometimes it is good to encourage them to join in and I love your idea of making the work fun. Although sometimes they do actually need to be alone. Have you thought about giving him a special job that just he needs to work on. Get the team leader to set deadlines that he must work too. That way he is working as part of the team but can work alone. Does that make sense? Try it and let me know.

Now I bet some people thought when they read your question about Egyptians living in mudhuts in modern Egypt that you were being silly. Would you believe you are actually spot on. When I was travelling down the Nile there were many many mudhuts filled with people. They were in small villages along the river. Any idea why they lived close to the river?

Good work guys!

Hello Hieroglyphics,

Can I say I have read fantastic things about your team and your support for other teams. Thats what I really like to hear. When I meet you remember to give me a big high five for excellent work. In fact I heard you made Miss Allen so proud she nearly cried!

Is your classroom really so cold that you need to work hard to keep warm? You should get your teachers to do something about that!! Maybe ask if you can move your school to Egypt!

You asked a lot of good questions. I am a busy man so I am not going to answer them all. You should speak to some of the other teams though for the answers to some of those questions. Egyptian children worked hard but they also had fun. Kids would often go for a swim in the Nile River, play tug o’ war, leap frog, or a board game. They play a game caled Mancala. They also played checkers. Check out this website for the answers to a lot of your questions.

http://www.iwebquest.com/egypt/mission1.htm#play

Good luck guys. Keep up the good work.

Hey Discovery Teams,

I see Mr Sandy spent 45 minutes last night replying to all your questions! That’s very exciting. I thought I would give a general answer to some of the great questions that you put forward.

From what I can see, the teams are all working really well together. Do you remember after week 2 we asked you if you would like to change groups half way through the big task? I think back then there were about 15 people who wanted to change groups. My guess is now that very few would like to change. This is because you have all bonded really well as a team and are learning how to work together and compromise. Some groups seem concerned about one person not helping as much as the others. Have you considered spending some time having a team meeting? You could take some time out of your poster project to discuss the problems and try to work through them. If you would like Miss Carter or I to be there for the meeting (although we wouldn’t speak!) then that would be fine – you can make an appointment.

A lot of you asked questions about what children wore in Ancient Egypt. The Egyptians actually wore different clothes to most of the rest of the Ancient Mediterranean countries. In the other countries they tended to wear one or two large pieces of material wrapped around them. However, in Egypt they wore a tunic which was sewn to fit them. Then men’s tunics would come down to their knees and the lady’s ones came down to their ankles. The tunics would be made out of linen are were motly plain white. Mostly, Egyptians didn’t wear shoes and had bare feet. If they did wear shoes though they would have been made out of straw or leather. Doesn’t sound very comfortable to me! If the men or boys were working in the fields they didn’t wear tunics. They wore short skirts with nothing on top. Do you have any ideas why they didn’t wear a tunic?

Like Mr Sandy said, there is plenty of information on the internet and in books. Check out our Egyptian library but also the lists of useful website which are in both the P3 and P4 tombs.

See you on Monday!
Miss Allen

Dear Ancient Egyptians,

Sometimes you here the comment that less is more – but I’m not sure if I agree with that this time with your half a star problem.

By the sound of it you are working really well in your team and are pretty happy so far with the poster – you have even said that you are ready to start collecting differences and similarities for each of these 3 children. My advice is to not get too hung up on the star!

I had a friend recently who visited a Glasgow museum – so I asked if they knew anything of a childs life in Ancient Egypt – I was told that if you were born to a rich family then a girl might become a preistess or a boy would be taught to write and become a scribe. If you were born into an ordinary family things could be very different. You have a look online at the British Museum website to start your search – good look.

Dear Pharaohs 1

I was very interested by your comments – I can’t imagine what you mean about the leg problem but I’m sure that boys in ancient egypt wore to tuinc to the knee, for girls it was diferent their tunic would go down to their ankles – a sure way to cover any leg problem I feel.
The tunics were really simple – usually a white linen material so I guess you might be lucky and find a material that would be appropriate.

Not such good news about doing the same thing twice because you hadn’t communicated well – however as long as you are aware of this then you can all ensure good communication in future.

It’s a common problem in lots of work places so don’t get too frustrated by it – just make extra sure that team members are consulted and listened too and you won’t go far wrong.

Pharaohs 2

great question about egyptian kids and what they gor up to when they weren’t working – I bet they did what kids a famous for and that is knowing how to play.

When I was little I lived in a terrace of houses with a back alley and me and my mates would play olympics – we even had a marathon.

I would try looking on the internet. You could even try to google the whole sentence…what did ancient egyptian … you just need to remeber to link your sentence words with the + sign. You never know you might come across khuzza lawizza.

have fun

Cleopatra

That’s such a cool name for a group.

Well I have heard of staring at peolpe to get them to do their job but I think that there are other ways too. I work for a big company and we try to make sure that everyone understands what the work is to be done – you can really only do this by talking it though and agreeing a strategy after that it is a real advantage for folk to work to their strengths.

This could mean that whilst some folk in your group are buiding visual images that others are thinking about how to find the written information to describe the different children -does that make sense?

There are certainly lots of different ways of getting the information you are looking for – does your school have a library of egyptian books – if not you could try your local library or that elctronic library better known as the internet.

Curse off the Mummy

What a canny idea you have had – dividing one body into 3!

You are right about materials this will help to highlight the differences between each child.

When you ask about different materials would it be useful show how diferent the climates are between lets say egypt and scotland today you could do this by drawing or indicating thick/thin material.

Our school trip yesterday was really good. The Egyptian room in the Museum was really exciting. Thank you Miss Allen and Miss Carter!.

Dear Mr. Sandy,
We don’t need to work to make our classroom warm.

Dear Mr Sandy,

Khufu’s wife must have been quite fat if she had 15 daughters and 9 sons. Thank you for the information.

P.S. – We didn’t take off our own hair.

Thank you R. Forth for telling some more information and what to google to get more information from. It sounds cool to have a marathon and an olympics.

Ancient Egyptians
If you go to this website, you will be able to read about a day in the life of ann Egyptian boy today. You will be able to find out what he does after school.
http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/kids/hh/goplaces/article/0,28376,536075,00.html

To the Hieroglyphics:

The Ancient Egyptian’s didn’t play chess as we know it, which orginiated in the far East. However, they did have a game which was a bit like chess called ‘Senet’.

They also played other board games, including ‘Dogs and Jackals’ which had an elaborate board. They used three coins instead of dice to determine how they moved their pieces which were shaped like jackals’ and dogs’ heads on sticks.

Vey much looking forward to seeing all your brilliant work at the Whaki Khaki Party.

Thank you that answer was very useful and we will use it on our poster.

PLEASE! come to the strathblne primary school wacky khaki party on egypt. It will be the best party you have EVER been to.

there is somthing very suspicious about the people that are going on our blog like Miss A.B. Foyle, Miss F. Hill, Miss Bun and Miss F. Park. Who is Miss Bun? From Ben

Goodness me. Mr Sandy has given you all some serious help here. I think you should invite him to the Whaki Khaki Party so we can all say thank you in person! Maybe he could dress as an Ancient Egyptian Pharoah.

I am reading all this interesting Egyptian stuff at the “OPEN BLOG EVENING”, with no other parents, and finding it fascinating. I will be logging on over the next few days and looking at all the links which have been provided by other bloggers to see what life was like for the children way back then. If I can find instructions on how to play some of the games that will be Calum, Jamie and Lucie’s spare time for the next month. No more computer or Wii! Will you be showing us how some of these games were played at the Party?

good work EVERYONE!hope you are having fun

Well done all children in P34 and to all your teachers.
I had a super trip to Egypt last night and thought everything was amazing. You have worked so hard and must have been really organised in your groups. You should all be extremely proud of yourselves.
I thought the classroom looked great and I loved all the artifacts …in the treasurey the sugar cube pyramid was a fantastic idea.
Well done and thank you for inviting us to share your success.

Thank you for all the people who came to the wacky khaki party on Thursday evening.
I really hope you liked it. we did.
We liked all the coments that you posted.
there has been 4970 people that have looked at our great blog!