Story of the World: Chapter 4

All Hail the Chicken Mummy!

It's here, it's finally here: the infamous chicken mummy chapter!  Crazy Bug and I have eagerly awaited chapter 4 of The Story of the World, because we've heard so much about the chicken mummy project.  And because we like doing really weird stuff.

Chapter 4 is about the Old Kingdom of Egypt and focuses on mummies and pyramids.  There are a couple projects suggested in the Activity Guide, but the one everyone talks about is mummifying a chicken.  I was wary at first, because I hate handling raw meat and I gag very easily.  The idea of leaving a chicken on my counter for a month didn't sound too tempting.  But many people reassured me, and I'm happy to say they were right.  Our chicken (actually a cornish game hen) is drying nicely in a mixture of baking soda, washing soda, and salt.  No stench!  If you don't have the Story of the World Activity Guide, you can find similar chicken mummy directions here.

I'd recommend this project for anyone studying Ancient Egypt.  Crazy Bug is in that gross six year-old phase and just adores our King Cluckmantutan.  She's really understands what the mummification process is all about now, and I'm sure she'll remember the information for a l-o-n-g time.

Here's what else we did:


Story of the World Lapbook, Chapter 4 component


Books
You Wouldn't Want to Be an Egyptian Mummy! - this book is not for the squeamish!
You Wouldn't Want to Be a Pyramid Builder
Mummies! (Know-It-Alls)

     

Project
Scented Oil
This is a project from the Activity Guide.  We'll use it later on our chicken mummy.  Crazy Bug chose the unusual and highly stinky combination of cinnamon, garlic, onion, curry, and dill seed.

Story of the World: Chapter 3

Chapter 3 of the Story of the World is only one section long, but we did a lot with it!  This chapter discusses the invention of writing and introduces both cuneiform and hieroglyphics.  We read the chapter and completed the chapter 3 lapbook component.

Books
Seeker of Knowledge - I loved this book!  It's a great beginner's biography of the man who deciphered the Rosetta Stone.

Craft
After discussing how the Egyptians made papyrus, we made our own homemade paper.  I've done this before using materials from around the house and it was a pain in the neck.  This time we used Arnold Grummer's Papermaking Kit , and it was much, much easier!

Science
We did an experiment to test which was a more durable method of writing, carving on clay tablets or writing on paper.

1.  First, we used Sculpey oven-bake clay ( III Modeling Compound copper) to create clay "tablets".  Using toothpicks, we carved cuneiform letters onto them and baked them until hard.

2.  My mother gave Crazy Bug a great hieroglyphic stamp set from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which we used to stamp "papyrus" (resume paper).  We rolled the paper into scrolls and tied them with string.

3.  We filled two identical containers with the same amount of same temperature water (a great time to talk about controlled variables), and put the clay tablet in one and the paper in the other.  We then checked the items every few hours to see how they were holding up.  By the next morning, we couldn't unroll the paper without ripping it, but the clay was unchanged.  Crazy Bug and I discussed the fact that there are few records from the later Egyptian periods and how this relates to the use of paper.  We also discussed how our modern records (paper and computer files) might hold up in 5000 years.

Snails: Part 2

 Snail mania has not yet subsided at my house.  Crazy Bug's fabulous kindergarten teacher encourages kids to bring in things they've written at home and share them with the class, so Caitlyn published a book about her snails.  I let her type it up, because she had a lot to say and her hand still gets too tired for lengthy writing projects.  I sat with her to help her organize her thoughts and use complete sentences.  For example:

 Me: "What did we do first?"
CB: "Find snails"
Me:  "How could you say that?  We..."
CB: "We found snails."
Me:  "Good, where?"
CB: "We found snails in the bushes."


I found another great advantage of typing: spellcheck!  My daughter is a perfectionist and HATES to be corrected when she writes.  But it's extremely painful for me to watch her hand her book to someone after all her hard work and hear them say, "What does it say?"  With spellcheck, I didn't have to say a thing.  Incorrect words were obvious with the handy red line.  Crazy Bug is at the point where she recognized the correct way to spell a word when she sees it, but can't always remember how to spell it on her own.  So after she wrote the book, I showed her how to use the spellcheck to find the correct spelling.  Every time she was able to pick out the right word from the list of suggestions.  I could practically see her thinking, "Oh, yeah, 'right' has a 'gh'."  Golden!

I also took some pictures and added them to the pages for her, so it looked really professional.  Here's the final result:

Snail Crazy

Crazy Bug's class started studying snails this week.  I decided to build on her excitement and extend the learning by helping her catch snails at home.  Bad idea.  The kid has gone absolutely snail crazy.  They're all she can think and talk about.  We have to "play with" the slimy things five times a day.  (And how can you play with a snail?)  We've written snail poems, sang snail songs, and made snail homes.  Enough already!

But, on the other hand, we've learned some interesting things:

Our yard is practically infested with snails.  I never knew how many lived around us.  What else have we been missing?

Snails are both male and female.  Any two snails can make crazy snail babies. 

Snails' eyes are on their tentacles.

Cool stuff.  If you'd like to start your own snail study, it's pretty easy.  Get a glass or plastic container and add some leaves and sticks.  Cover the top with an old nylon held by a rubber band.  Go out on a wet day and look underneath the leaves of low-growing plants.  (This often involves turning halfway upside down to look up at the underneath sides of plants).  Pull the snails gently by their shells until they release their grip on the plants.  Make sure that you mist the snails and their home regularly with dechlorinated water so they stay moist.

If you're having trouble finding snails, another option is to make an outdoor snail house.   Simply turn a clay flowerpot upside down and prop one edge with a stone or saucer.  Put some veggies peelings inside and wait until nighttime.  Then lift up the pot and grab the little buggers.

If your kids fall totally in love with the snails, try writing an acrostic poem about snails.  Write the word "snail" down the left-hand side of the paper in capital letters.  Then think of something about snails for each letter.  Here is my daughter's:

Happy snail hunting!