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)