Egypt Uncovered!

A favorite subject for children is Egypt and King Tut.  For many years I held a summer program called Time Travelers.  Each week the children would participate in activities designed around a specific era.  Egypt and dinosaur days were the most popular.  During the class the children would learn through the hands-on activities planned for the era.  As a youth services librarian, I have planned for the 2013 Summer Reading Program (SRP) Dig into Reading, a program called Egypt Unwrapped.  The activities will be based on the tried and true activities used for all those years in my other life.

A  favorite book for making artifacts is by Andrew Haslam called Ancient Egypt from the series Make It Work!  The activities are detailed and more involved than can be done in a one hour program, but can be made ahead of time and used as artifacts.  This is the mask I made based on the one in the book.  I used a craft mask form with some plasticine clay to form the raised eyes, ears and beard.  The whole form was covered with papier mâché.  To make the hood I used a cardboard cut into the shape and then covered again in papier mâché.  Acrylic paint and a steady hand was used to paint in the details. 

 

Another artifact from the book was easier to make, the wall tile.  This was a copy copy decoupaged to a plaster plaque.  I used a box lid and regular plaster of Paris, and then dried.  The color copy was then applied with a decoupage medium.  I found that the ink on the copy wanted to spread, so a small amount of brushing of the medium is needed.  Since it is to represent a 1000 year old artifact, imperfections are fine. 

 

Children love to talk about the "yucky" stuff.  Pretend embalming is a big hit.  Have several stuffed animals (dollar store or second-hand store purchase) that can be "dissected" during the program.  Pre-cut open the stomachs of the animals and remove some of the stuffing.  Add in the "organs," such as bags of sand or bean bags to represent the liver and balloons for the lungs. If you are feeling gooey, add cooked spaghetti or lasagna noodles for the bowels.  If not, long skinny balloons filled with water make great intestines.  I used large plastic cups for canopic jars marked with the proper organ symbol to place the "organs."  The cavity is filled with tissue and gems (shiny buttons, fake gems, even sequins will work).  The whole animal is then wrapped with toilet tissue to mummify the critter.  If you feel adventurous, adding a sprinkle of sand to represent natron.  If you don't want to waste the tissue, you can use regular tissue paper cut into large strips.  

Other Program Ideas

1. Children can make and take a mummy.  Clothespins, the old fashioned kind, with a round head and two prongs are wrapped in plaster craft.  Plaster craft is a strip of gauze pretreated with plaster of Paris.  Adding gems or sequins to the wrapping makes the experience more like a "real" mummy.  
2. There are several coloring sarcophagus sheets available on the internet. 
3. An old-fashioned ice cream spoon (a flat wooden spoon shaped stick) can be covered with crepe paper, two wiggle eyes glued on the spoon, and a pin back makes a great mummy pin to wear home.  
4. A fun game to play is to wrap a teammate in tissue and have a race to see which team can wrap and run their mummy across the room.  
5. Play the song, Walk Like an Egyptian and practice your Egyptian walking.  
6. Dig for artifacts in homemade dough or a store-purchased  dough product.  
7. There are several kits available that look like a pyramid that can be chipped away to uncover an artifact. 
8. Write your name in hieroglyphics or decode a phrase written in hieroglyphics. 
9. Dip a folded coffee filter in tea to dye.  Dry and unfold and glue to both sides of a fan-shaped piece of card stock that has a craft stick glued to the middle of the bottom edge.  Add some raffia to the stick and slip on some pony beads and you have a great papyrus fan. 
10. Snack, dried fruit or fruit snacks.  Adventurous?  Beef jerky. 

Favorite Children's Books to Read Aloud

Our library is busy building a list of 100 of the top children's books.  As a storyteller, I have just a handful of my most favorite books to read to children.  By far the story I love to tell the most is The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams.  There are several ways of reading the story.  First is to read the story without the children's involvement.  The story builds and as the little old lady is nearing her home, the pace builds quickly and the words should be read faster and faster until she is safely in her cottage.  Then the pace can quiet down as she rocks.  The line that reads, "Should she answer it?" can be asked of the children.  Some will say "yes" and some will say "no."  Remind the children that she is not afraid of anything!
 

A second way to read to a group of older children is to have the children act out the parts of the scarecrow as the little old lady meets them.  The children will shake for the shirt, clap for the gloves, tap their feet for the shoes, as so forth.  The children will need to be standing for the story.  If you do not want the children standing, they can help repeat the repetitive lines in the story.  

Another favorite book is Owl Babies by Martin Waddell.  This story involves three little owls waiting for their mother to come home.  The children can relate to their having to wait for their mother at different points in their lives.  The three owls each have a distinctive voice inflection.  The oldest (I feel Sarah is the oldest) has a normal tone, Percy is a bit higher inflection and Bill, the baby, has the highest pitch, very baby-like tone.  At the point where the owls feel like their mother will never come back and they close their eyes, I ask the children if the mother will come back.  Some of the children say "yes" and some say "no."  In your best "mother" voice say "What's all the fuss..."  If the children at the story time with their mother, I ask after the story is over to give their moms' a hug.  

A favorite fairy tale to tell is Three Billy Goats Gruff.  This is a traditional story that works well with a flannel board.  There are several flannel kits and a variety of books that tell this story.  The best part of the story is to modulate your voice to the size of the goat.  The wee or little billy goat gets a high pitched voice, middle-sized voice for the middle brother and booming, loud voice for biggest goat.  The ogre gets a version of the biggest goat, but I like to add a bit of a comical inflection.  When the biggest goat says, "I am the biggest..." the ogre gets a "Hummm?" that is somewhat of a Simpson's character's voice.  I try not to make the ogre's death a big deal, he just floats down the river never to be seem again.

Later blogs with include other favorites.

At the library we have two children's book clubs.  One is for children ages seven to nine, and the other is for ages nine to 12.  The book clubs are very popular, we usually have 12-16 children at each month's meeting.  At registration for the next month, the children get a copy of the book to keep (which helps with the popularity of the book clubs). My co-youth librarian applied for a Grant through a popular store and we were awarded the money to purchase the books.  Our Friends of the Library has in the past supported the book club purchases.  We shop traditional library sources and order un-processed books.  A great source has been the twice yearly Scholastic book fair held in our area for teachers and librarians, we have found good prices for current titles. 

Each program runs for approximately an hour.  A typical program may include:

1. Optional Ice Breaker game
2. Book discussion
3. Game
4. Craft
5. Snack

The beginning of the hour is the book discussion.  The children vote thumbs up or down on the book.  The librarian has a few key questions developed to promote discussion.  Once a while, an ice breaker game is played to prompt the children into a more relaxed mood and helps open the group to a discussion.  Ice breakers include games such as the Candy Game.  The children receive a small cup of colored candies.  Going in turns around the room each color the children pulls a candy out of the cup without looking and then must tell something about themselves.  Red = something about their school, Blue = something about their family, Green = what is their favorite food, etc.

The children enjoy crafts and usually there is a themed craft to go with the book.  A felt mouse bookmark for Stuart Little.  A bottle cap necklace with a photo of a pet inside for books on dogs/pets.  Clothespin mummies for a non-fiction book on archeology.  Masks for a book that had a masked ball.  In a pinch we will use purchased craft kits or kits that are left from other programs.  The craft is simple and easy to make in about ten minutes. 

Games include popular group board games as well as games popular in school.  For a book on the Titanic each child received a sealed envelope as a boarding pass.  Inside was a description of a person who was on the ship.  The children read their bio to the group.  Before opening the inside envelope that told if their passenger survived, the children guessed on the answer.  Not one child was upset with the outcome.  This activity is similar to the Titanic exhibit that travels the country.  The games are tailored to the age of the children in the book club.

Snacks are very popular.  We try to match the snack to the book if we have time.  A book had ice cream sodas, and the children had sodas.  "Champagne" of  sparkling juice for Titanic passengers.  Chocolate dipped fortune cookies for a book with an Asian theme.  Cupcakes for a book with a birthday theme. If the book does not mention a food item, or we are pressed for time, bagged snacks such as chips or fruit snacks will be used along with drink box. 

At the end of the meeting, the children receive a copy of next month's book.  In the book is a bookmark with the date and time of the next meeting as a reminder.