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Ancient Egypt Project 09/12/2009

The last month or two, we have been “doing” Ancient Egypt.  We have:

• made a potato mummy – we cut a vaguely human shape out of a slice of potato, covered it with a mixture of bicarbonate of soda and salt and left for two weeks in a sealed container.  The potato shrinks and blackens and goes a bit yucky.  You can then wrap it in bandages and voila you have your mummy.  If you were really brave you might try this with a chicken :-).  My recommendation would be to use a pretty big potato cos it is surprising how much it shrinks!
  

  Potato Mummy - Before

  

  Potato Mummy - After

• made reed boats from bendy straws

• made and played a game of Senet, making a board from rigid cardboard and counters out of air drying clay

• learned how the Egyptians prepared bodies for mummifcation by playing this game on the BBC History site
• played lots of games of Tutan Loot ‘Em (a fabulous board game made by Orchard Toys)
• made Pharoah’s crowns

• coloured in lots of Egyptian pictures
• painted a life sized (well, Waif sized!) Ancient Egyptian man