One thing I love about our kids' school is that they truly immerse the kids in learning. The teachers have designed curriculum to help the children really embrace their projects and create a memorable learning experience. This year, Barrett's sixth grade class is studying world history in social studies. The module they just finished up was Egyptian history. We've been eating, sleeping and breathing Egypt for about two weeks now, and I have to say I'm a little happy we're moving on. My kitchen counter has finally re-surfaced after being buried for a week under a paint cloth, glue gun, sticks, paint, clay, all sorts of adhesives, jewels, ribbon, scissors and all things crafty.
Here's Barrett's completed pyramid from the outside. After it was all finished, we sprayed a final layer of spray adhesive and then sprinkled sand (courtesy of our neighborhood park) all over the outside to give it an "authentic" feel.
Barrett did a great job on her weapon room. She has hand crafted axes, a shield, a knife, ropes & nooses, and sticks. Even though the room was pretty simple, this was actually my favorite room in the pyramid. I must be related to Michael :) Her "Treasury" room was filled with jewels and mirrors and a gold plated hand crafted mini-chair. So cute.
Other rooms in her pyramid housed the death trap room with the pit of snakes and torches, as well as her food chamber where hand crafted clay baskets were filled with beans, oats and other delights.
In the king's chamber, a ladder is the only way to reach the gold sarcophagus and chest of treasures. Barrett made the sarcophagus in her art class at school. Inside, is an awesome wrapped mummy.
Barrett's friends, Tea and Riley at their Egyptian festival. All of the kids had to select an Egyptian God or Goddess for the festival and then dress up like that figure and deliver a short speech. It was a hoot to see all the kids in their outfits. I was actually pretty impressed.
Barrett's friend, Scott Nelson, showing off his killer pyramid and costume.
I helped out in Barrett's class the day they made their Egyptian death masks. We made a mold of each of the students' faces using these plaster strips and water. It was actually a lot of fun and pretty cool to see how their molds turned out.
After we got the plaster molded to their faces, they had to sit for about 15 minutes until the plaster hardened. They were all pretty great sports about the whole thing.
Here is Barrett's finished death mask, hanging on the wall at her Egyptian fair.
This whole Egyptian immersion was definitely a family affair. I sewed Barrett's costume for her using a pattern my mom had from years ago. I pulled the skirt fabric out of my stash that I've been planning to use for new Christmas nativity costumes. This was supposed to be a wise man's tunic, but I made it into a wrap around skirt instead that will double as a sheath type thing that we will use this year in our nativity. And I seriously scored on her gold fabric as I wandered the clearance aisle at JoAnn after Halloween. 60% off. Nice.
Both Barrett and her friend, Katy Anderson, were dressed as the Goddess Maat (since they are in different home room classes, they both got to dress up as the same Goddess.) There's a whole story to the feather that Maat wore on her head. Ask Barrett to give you her speech and you'll learn what it's all about.
We were proud of Barrett and enjoyed her whole Egyptian immersion experience and fair. She did a great job and earned an "A."
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