Week 4 - Africa: Egypt & Moses

Its Week 4 and we are diving into our continents study this week with Africa. Our country of the week is Egypt, which I strategically chose because of the role that Egypt plays in the history of God's people. Naturally, our Bible lessons will be about Moses this week - his birth through his role in helping the Hebrew nation escape slavery. B and K are continuing their work in Readwell.

I purchased this fabric map of the world from the International Missions Board website and I love it! We've had our inflatable globe to use thus far but the kids love getting down on the floor and locating the country as we learn about it. The colors are beautiful and its large enough to see all of the countries, yet easily folds up for storage so its not in the way.


Morning Warm-Ups

• Moses in the Basket maze

Morning Group Time
We start each morning off with this series of videos that the kids enjoy and contain important information for us to learn together. I change up the list from week to week depending on our focus or certain themes we have with a few of the videos remaining always.

• Pledge to the Flag

• Pledge to the Bible

• Children of the World song

• Continents Song

• Days of the Week Song (Addams Family)

• Months of the Year Macarena Song

• Count to 100 Rap

• Books of the Bible Song - focus on Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus Numbers

Letters & Vocabulary
K is still learning his letter sounds so we began with A. We reviewed our vocabulary words: 

• Pharaoh
• Mummy
• Pyramid
• Ancient
• Hieroglyphics
• Plague
• Nile

Language

I learned that there is no "Egyptian language" that is still spoken today, though Mau (pronounced "mew") was how they originally said Cat in Egypt. Today most of Egypt speaks Arabic. We learned a few words and watched a few videos to become familiar with the language and how it sounds. We learned Marhaban - "Hi", Ahlan - "hi" response (welcome) and Mawzah - banana among other words with the help of Little Pim videos on YouTube.

Bible Story

Our Bible verse was from Psalms 56:3 - When I am afraid I will trust in thee.

We read about Moses's birth and the plagues of Egypt and remembered that even when we don't understand the things that happen, we don't have to be afraid. We must always trust God and his sovereignty.

I used the resources at this site to help put together our lesson: Moses' Birth & Plagues of Egypt

I admit that I have never really learned the plagues of Egypt and found it fun to learn them with the kids. We used the 10 Plagues art activity to help. The kids loved coloring, cutting and gluing the numbers of each plague and we strung them together to hang as a reminder. Using this hands-on art activity helped them (and me) remember the 10 plagues in order as they can remember how each number is decorated according to its plague.

Reading
We borrowed I am Too absolutely small for School to read this week. Unrelated to Egypt, I chose this book because it was a cute, fun book about how Lola believes that she is still too small for school, but finds out that she might actually need to go after all so she can learn her ABCs.

We have used the True Books to learn more about each continent at the beginning of each month. We used Africa (True Books) to learn about the geography, demographics and history.

In Ms. Frizzle's Adventures: Ancient Egypt,  Ms. Frizzle of the popular Magic School Bus boards a plane to visit Egypt when all of the passengers use their parachutes and land in Ancient Egypt - all except the tour guide who somehow manages to land in modern Egypt. The book gives us a back and forth look at both ancient and modern Egypt as we learn about the history, culture, and way of life in Egypt as well as see and explore popular Egyptian symbols and rituals through the text, side conversations and side notes of the book.

We borrowed Mummies, Pyramids and Pharaohs from the library. We didn't read this book but rather walked through it as I pointed out specific information, photos or illustrations to reinforce some of the things we've already learned this week about Egypt.
Media
There were some great videos to watch this week on Egypt. Is there another country that has such interested history and entertaining symbols of culture? Through these videos, not only did we learn more about the culture and famous landmarks, but we also learned about pyramid shapes, animals and even the Bible. 

• Bubble Guppies - Only the Sphinx Nose (on Amazon Prime)
• Backyardigans - The Key to the Nile (on Amazon Prime)
• Go, Diego, Go! - Egyptian Camel Adventure (on Amazon Prime)
• Disney's Prince of Egypt (Netflix)
• Peg+Cat The Golden Pyramid Problem (on Amazon Prime)

Other Resources

• Ancient Egypt Unit
• Find more ideas & resources on my BKS Prep - Egypt Pinterest board.