Lesson #1 - Introduction to Ancient Egypt

We designed this lesson to introduce ancient Egypt to the class and familiarize them with some of the important terms and ideas that we would be addressing in the unit. Also, our pre-assessment indicated that many students did not know much about the geography of ancient Egypt so we wanted to discuss how its location affected climate and daily life. We began the lesson by reading aloud Tomie dePaola's Bill and Pete Go Down the Nile. This was one of the only fiction books that we found about ancient Egypt that was interesting, age-appropriate, and still contained some information. Through the read-aloud we were able to highlight several important topics (the Nile, mummies, pyramids, the sphinx, etc.).

Following the read aloud, I provided some geography instruction. During this portion of the lesson, we wanted to encourage the students to think about Egypt's location in relation to Charlottesville. I had students come to the front of the classroom to place a large star on Charlottesville and Egypt on a world map. We then distributed smaller maps and star stickers to the students so that they could also label these locations individually. There was some chaos during this time because the students were sitting on the floor and fought over what color stickers they should use. As they labeled their maps, we asked the students to compare the locations of Egypt and Charlottesville and think about how this might make the weather and climate different.

After labeling these two areas, the students returned to their seats to finish labeling the map of Egypt. We presented it as if they were flying from Charlottesville, across the ocean, and hovering above Egypt. The students seemed to like this illustration and it helped them visualize the map in more concrete terms. We asked them to remember some of the features of a map (title, river, etc.) and think about some of the places that Bill and Pete had visited in the story. The students were able to remember the Nile, but needed some prompting to remember the Sahara Desert. We also placed word keys on each group of desks so that students would not have trouble spelling any of the features they labeled. This exercise went well in that it familiarized the students with some of the important land forms, but I was still left wondering if there is a more effective way to teach geography to second graders. I also wish that this class had a stronger background in geography, latitude, longitude, etc.

Our final activity involved cooperative learning groups looking at a picture of Egypt and making observations. I was the most nervous about this portion of the lesson because it had the potential to be very chaotic. Because of these concerns, Catherine and I tried to be as explicit as possible in designing the instructions and worksheets for this activity. We cut out colored cards that indicated each student's job and made a key for the front of the room in case the students forgot what their color represented. We also made heavily scaffolded worksheets to help direct the students' thinking. Finally, we went over the directions twice to make sure that there was no confusion. This activity seemed to work well because all of the students were involved and felt like they had a special job. They made good observations and inferences based on the picture and demonstrated higher level thinking. This was a good way to use a visual to talk about different features in Egypt (climate, plants, buildings).

Overall, I was very pleased with this lesson. Although we were short on time, I still felt as though we accomplished all of our goals. In the future, I might cut out the story at the beginning if time was more of an issue. I think that it would have been more beneficial to spend more time looking at the picture, especially after we spent so much time setting up the activity.