Mummies, Dates and Pyramids

We LOVE the book, The Giraffe that Walked to Paris!  It was great to read it again today.  I hope your kiddos went home and reenacted the plot of the story with their giraffe, pyramid, and Parisian cutouts.  I found the cutouts on this site: http://madebyjoel.com/2011/08/paper-city-paris.html

They were about the cutest things I had ever seen, until today, when I saw your kids turn each other into mummies.

Yes, we focused on Egypt today.  First, we talked about deserts and how hot they are.  We then sampled some dates.  A few of them ended up in the garbage can.  But finally we learned about pyramids and mummies.  We learned the process of "making" a mummy and then tried it out on a few of our friends.  We got so good, that by the end of class we were making triplet and twin mummies.  We also mummified a pet! (No animals were hurt in the making of the pet mummy.)

Here are the directions we followed:

1) Remove the organs and place them in canopic jars

2) Place the body in salt

3) After time has passed rub the body with oils, herbs and more salt. (We also added tickling the body to this step.)

4) Carefully, wrap the body in linen strips.

5) Place the body in up to 4 coffins.

6) Secretly place the mummy in the pyramid.

(A few of these steps were done in our imagination.)

Everyone participated in our mummification process.  And almost everyone was mummified at some point during class.  They were all superb sports.  It was so fun to watch! 

Next week, we are taking to the skies and reading, The Glorious Flight.

Organ removal

Oil and herb rub

Linen wrap (notice our triplet mummy skills)

La Giraffe and a Paris Menagerie

We read a marvelous story about a giraffe this week.  The best thing about it was the fact that it is a TRUE story!
The book, The Giraffe that Walked to Paris, details the story of the giraffe given to Charles I by the Pasha of Egypt in 1826.  The French ambassador to Egypt suggested the French king might forgive a quarrel the two leaders were having if the Pasha gave him a gift.
The Pasha decided upon his giraffe because the French people had never seen one.
The giraffe sailed across the Mediterranean Sea aboard a ship.  They took three cows along, because the baby giraffe needed THREE pails of milk a day.  This baby giraffe was 11 feet tall!  The journey over water went well, only one cow got seasick.
The ship landed in Marseille.  There was one problem-the King was in Paris!!  The two cities are on the opposite ends of France.  It was decided that the giraffe would stay in the warm weather of Marseille for the winter.  The king was very unhappy.  When spring came he sent for his present.  But they didn't exactly know HOW to get the giraffe to Paris.  Finally, they decided she would walk.
People in France flocked to see La Giraffe!  She was very popular.  Her picture was everywhere-on clothes, dishes, store signs, windows.  Women even styled their hair in her honor (very high.)
The king grew even sadder that everyone saw HIS present before he did.
Finally, the king met the giraffe and was astounded!   He declared her the queen of the animals.
La Giraffe lived in the Paris zoo for the rest of her life.
In honor of La Giraffe, we spent the remainder of our class building a zoo.
We figured out what animals could be displayed together and built them enclosures.  Our zoo was absolutely fantastic.  We had an aquarium that Josh made.  Not to brag, but this aquarium had WHALES!!!   Julian spent his time gathering dinosaurs for his exhibit(yes, our zoo had dinosaurs).  Lily and Eden worked on a fantastical exhibit of unicorns and other horses.
Tayler designed an incredible giraffe enclosure.  She later kicked out the giraffes and let the gorillas move in.  (The giraffes moved to a smaller enclosure next door.) Naomi created the perfect enclosure for her cow and lizard.  They now live in perfect harmony.  Parley built an amphibian/reptile house.  All his creatures looked very content.  Vivian and Damsel spent their time building multiple cute animal enclosures.  There was even a pig with all her piglets.
These creative kiddos did great things.  I loved how they immediately started separating the animals into groups.  Lily made a huge cat family.  The horses found each other.  All the sea animals migrated together.  Our zoo was a smash.  At the end of class, we even found a LIVE caged animal.  We eventually let her go to lunch.
Next week, we will talk about Egypt and make a mummy.

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Cards, Love, and Bingo

There were some extraordinary Valentine cards passed out during class on Thursday.  It was so fun filling each other's Valentine pouches with cards and treats.  It was great to see the variety, especially the handmade cards. SOOOO cute!  Thanks for doing those.  It made for a fun class.

After exchanging cards, we each decorated a heart sugar cookie with frosting and sprinkles.  Then we played a game with Sweetheart candies.  Each child chose a candy with a word or phrase on it.  Then they were challenged to use the word or phrase in a sentence.  Such fun!

After that we read the book Guess How Much I Love You.  We enjoyed it!

Then we played Valentine Bingo.  Everyone got a bingo!! 

At that point all our classmates arrived back from their fire fieldtrip. They even brought us all fire fighter hats!! We caught them up with cookies and cards and then read the book, I'll Love You Forever. (I even made it through without crying!)  The reactions were hilarious.  They weren't too sure about a mom rocking a 9-year-old, teen, and then grown man?!?!  I had a similar reaction when I read it for the first time, especially, when the mom drives across town with a ladder atop her car, and climbs the ladder to the man's room.  He must be a heavy sleeper and have a very understanding wife and she must have super mom strength to maneuver the ladder.  But in the end, we agreed it was a very sweet, lovely story. 

Lastly, we played a marvelous, spirited game of charades.  They were all so GOOD!!  And they were excited to "go again!"  I promised them I would bring it back because there was just not enough time for a hundred rounds of charades.

Next week we will be reading a FANTASTIC story.  It's about a giraffe from Egypt.

Charades-baby with a pacifier (or did I even need to explain.)

Painting to our hearts content

Such a fun messy class this week. We started out by making a color wheel. We even mixed our own secondary colors. It was great watching the color discoveries happening up and down the table. We then painted a gondola. Our book character, Papa Piccolo, loved to travel in gondolas! Our gondolas were certainly not ordinary. They made the perfect place to put our cat, tiger, or lion stickers.
Lastly, we kept on painting (to the chagrin of a few students) by adding the finishing touches to our Valentine pockets! They turned out adorable! Next week we will use them to deliver our friends' valentines.

So PLEASE this week make ready Valentine cards or messages for all our classmates. If you are going on the field trip, Teacher Jennifer will deliver them for you and give you your valentine pocket when you return.

Here is our student list:

Parley
Eli
Josh
Julian
J.J.
Daniel
Lily
Naomi
Tayler
Damsel
Vivian

THANK YOU

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