This has been quite an exciting week. Here is some of the things we have been learning:

Ancient Egyptians

This week Mrs Munro promised us we would learn about mummification and all the disgusting things that go along with it. 

First we learned that the very first preserved mummies were actually just buried in a hole in the sand. This was great for dehydrating and preserving the bodies but there was a big risk of wild animals eating them. The ancient egyptians believed that there body would come back in the afterlife when the world ended, therefore they would need their bodies whole. A half eaten body would be no good for the afterlife. So they decided to protect the bodies by putting them in a box before burying them. This caused problems as the bodies were not able to dry out and would rot away. This is when they developed the method of mummification that we know of today.

The first step of mummification was to take the body to a place called the Beautiful House. They would then lay the body on a tilted bed and cleanse it with palm wine. It was then rinsed with water from the River Nile.

A cut was then made on the left hand side of the body and all the organs removed, except for the heart. They believed that the heart was responsible for intelligence and emotion, so they left it in place for the afterlife. The liver, lungs, stomach and intestines were cleaned and dried out in a natural salt called Natron. They were then put into Canopic Jars to be protected by the 4 sons of Horus.

Next they removed the brain. As they thought this was an unimportant part of the body they would put a hook up the nose and smash the brain. It was then brought out through the nose in small pieces or in liquid form to save them having to damage the skull.

The body was then placed in Natron to dry out. This stage could take 40-50 days.

Next the organs that were not put into jars were placed back into the body. The body was then stuffed with sawdust, rags or leaves to help it keep its shape. The skin was preserved by being coated in a resin made from plants. The body was then wrapped in linen, usually up to 20 layers thick. 

When wrapping the body, they would start with the head and neck, then the fingers and toes were wrapped individually. The arms and legs were wrapped separately too. Amulets and notes on papyrus were placed between the layers of linen to protect the person in the afterlife. The four main amulets were: The isis knot or tyet which would be placed at the neck to protect the body. The heart amulet which was placed over the heart to protect it. The scarab which was placed over the upper abdomen. It was a dung beetle which represented rebirth and the rising and setting of the sun. The Udjat or Eye of Horus was placed on the abdomen, over the cut to remove the organs. It was a symbol of good health that was shaped like the eye of the falcon God Horus. 

While the wrapping was taking place, a priest wearing a mask of Anubis would read spells to ward off evil spirits and help the journey to the afterlife. 

A tar like substance, called Mummia, was used to glue the linen layers together. This is where the term mummy comes from. A final piece of linen, the shroud, was then placed over the body. 

A death mask, that looked like the person when they were alive, was made and put on top of the mummy so that their soul (Ba) could find them. The mummy is put in a wooden coffin. This wooden coffin might be put into another wooden coffin. Perhaps even another wooden coffin. These coffins would be elaborately decorated. The first coffin might be shaped and painted like a body. The box shaped outer coffin might have eyes painted on it so the person could see, a false door on the inside so the person could step out, and hieroglyphics on the outside.

A funeral was held, and funeral songs sung. A ritual called the ‘Opening of the Mouth’ was performed so that the dead person would be able to eat, drink and speak in the afterlife. The final stage was to put the coffins into a sarcophagus (stone coffin) and place it in a tomb with valuable objects, food and drink for the journey to the afterlife.

We have also started to create an egyptian picture that will depict us a pharaoh. Unfortunately we didn’t get these finished as planned but we will finish them after the holidays. 

The Witches

This week we aimed to try and finish our class novel. We still have a few chapters to read but Mrs Munro will record these for us to listen to. 

The story has continued with the boy being turned into a mouse by the Grand High Witch. He was given 500 doses of Formula 86 Delayed Action Mouse Maker. He then found Bruno (who was also turned into a mouse) and they went to Grandmamma’s hotel room. Grandmamma was great and understood exactly what had happened. The boy then decided to try and steal some formula from the Grand High Witch’s hotel room. He managed to get into her room through the balcony and steal a bottle. We are really excited to find out what he does with it.

We also finished off our class potions book this week. We started by making up our own potions based on Formula 86 Delayed Action Mouse Maker. This week we redrafted our recipes onto some potion bottles and decorated them. We stuck them on black card, created a front and back cover and then Mrs Munro bound them together. 

Spelling

For our sentences this week Mrs Munro gave us a range of -ly, -ed and -ing openers. We then had to write our own sentences with our spelling words, using one of the openers to start our sentences.

pictures

Numeracy

On Monday we had the Ipads so completed a few different numeracy challenges. We played different place value games on Education City. Some of us played a bit of SumDog but this wasn’t mandatory as we had done so well in the competition last week. We also played ‘Hit the Button’. We all challenged ourselves with number bonds, addition and subtraction and times tables. 

Pi looked at factors and will be moving onto prime numbers when we come back. Percentage and Square Root were finishing off addition and subtraction. They were looking at different methods of partitioning. Infinity and Perpendicular were doing some ordering of 4 and 5 digit numbers.

Other

PAThS kid this week was Chloe. She is a big fan of kittens.

Autumn Wreath

We started by talking about different signs of Autumn. Then we went outside to see if we could see any signs. We then collected a range of autumn leaves and other things we could find to make our autumnal wreaths. 

We then used double sided tape to stick our autumn leaves to paper plates to complete our wreaths. 

We are very proud of the final result.