Today I have tested the following out on two children of the
ages 8 and 10:
· Quiz Wordsearch (from Session 1 – The Pyramids)
· Draw Your Day worksheet (from Session 2 – Living
In Egypt)
· Memory card game (from Session 3 – Mummification
process)
Please note that only one of
these children have studied the History of Ancient Egypt (the 10 year old) the
8 year old has little knowledge of Egypt. Also, the age I aim aiming this
activity pack at is the age of 9.
Before each task, I spoke with
both of the children about the topic. The first one for example, was the
pyramids. We discussed them for 10-15 minutes and they discovered they knew a
lot more than they thought they did.
Quiz Wordsearch (from Session 1 – The Pyramids)
This is a quiz wordsearch I have
produced on the Pyramids. The idea is to fill in the missing letters on the
quiz sheet to complete words and then once those words are complete, the
children must find them in the wordsearch.
The quiz wordsearch proved to be
a success, particularly after we’d talked before hand and discussed the reasons
why pyramids were built and how they were build. I found that both of the
children enjoyed finding each word in the wordsearch in particular but needed
some help with filling in the words on the quiz sheet (to be able to find them
in the search) However, this only happened for a few words and I found the
majority there were able to fill in themselves, particularly the 10-year-old
who seemed to get very excited when he matched a word correctly in the
missing-letter-spaces provided.
Overall I am pleased with the way
the children carried out this task. They seemed enthusiastic and keen to learn
and asked almost right away what I have for them next!
Draw Your Day Worksheet (from Session 2 – The Pyramids)
This is a worksheet where
children have six boxes on a page where they must ‘draw their day.’ The idea is
to compare their day to that of an Egyptian child, which would be the analysis
at the end of the session.
When testing these sheets out, I found
that both the children enjoyed and seemed to be equally involved with as there
was no ‘academic testing’ involved to test their knowledge of Egypt. Even
though the task was to draw pictures, I found that when we talked about them as
they were drawing, they had developed an interest and were able to already see
the differences from their life to that of a child 4000 years ago in Ancient
Egypt. For example, the 8-year-old commented on the cereal she eats, comparing
it to the breakfast of an Egyptian child, which consisted of bread and fruit.
The results and enthusiasm I got
from the children whilst completing this worksheet has given me confidence that
the approach I have taken with it has come across correctly and proved to be an
enjoyable experience for both of them.
Memory Card Game (from Session 3 – Mummification)
This particular activity is taken
from Session 3 which is about Mummification. The activity is card game based on
memory, a bit like snap where you have to match the pairs up. Each card is
supplicated and placed face down on the table infront, and each child must take
it in turns to turn over 2 cards at a time to try and match up a pair. I’ve
tried to help this by making sure each card has a strong visual of an object
used during the mummification process.
The results of this activity
showed the children thoroughly enjoyed the game as they wanted to play for a
second time. I wanted this task to not only be a fun game to play, but
something for the children to remember and retain information from. I wanted
the visuals on the cards to help the children remember all the important items
used during mummification. After playing the game, we discussed the
mummification process again and I’m delighted to say that they managed to
retain the information I gave them previous to playing the game!
