Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Ancient Civilisations Day

Unlike the International School of Amsterdam (ISA) where they have "Unit of Inquiry"(UOI) as part of the curriculum, here at the British School, students cover a few "projects"(I'm not sure the term used) a year. Similar to UOI, each project may take up to 8 weeks to conclude. To be honest, until now I still do not know under what subject they learn this.


Ilham and his fellow Year 4 classmates had just finished lesson on Ancient Egypt. Next, according to Ilham, they will learn The Tudors, The Romans, then World War II. So I suppose they learn this under History???? I would prefer the UOIs because they cover a more global issues like health, science, taking care of our planets etc...


They sure spend a lot of time learning about Ancient Egypt, from river Nile to pyramid to flood to pharoahs to mummies and Moses!!! Ilham came back one day telling me that they watched videos of Moses and that they had already watched 6 cds and still have a few more left !!! I wonder, is it really necessary to spend that much of time on Moses(their version of it anyway)???


Anyway, to conclude the end of lesson on Egypt, on November 11th, the students celebrated Ancient Civilisations Day where they dressed up as Egyptians and ate home lunch with an Egyptian twist. The costumes need not be expensive, just something white or T shirts will do, and sandals of course, preferably leather (imagine that!!! not expensive and yet leather!!! )


Since we didn't know where to buy the costumes anyway, we decided to make a simple one. Coincidently, we happened to have a guest staying with us at the time, and she was full of ideas. Let's see what she came up with using double sided tape (we do not have sewing machine!!)


Ancient Egyptian Warrior - that's what Ilham wanted to be...




Eye kohl was a must for men and women then..



Capal served as egyptian sandals :))


And his classmates...







Note that Arek, the middle boy was actually wearing his father's T-shirt :)))



Ahhhh the beautiful Cleopatra...



Lunch with Egyptian twist - pita bread and dried fruits....


They spent the day playing games like translating the secret code of Ancient Egypt letters and wrapping up mummies. As it happened, one of the boys came to school dressed up as a mummy, so he became their victim. They just had to wrap his head !!!

6 comments:

Cat-from-Sydney said...

Mother of Ilham,
I hope they also learn that in ancient Egypt, they worship cats as Gods and Goddesses....purrr....meow!

TK said...

Bestnya ada aktiviti mcm tu.Cantik costume Ilham. Mmg mcm Firaun sungguh Ilham. All his egyptian friends pun cutenya dgn costume masing2.Malaysian schools xde buat aktiviti camtu...BTW, I am very interested in ancient Egypt-pyramids and mummies. One of my friends baru fly ke Egypt smlm. How I envy her.

i amsterdam said...

Dear Angelina,

Ilham did mention the names of the cat goddess(3 of them) but my grey cells seemed to elude them. Considering that you are so clever and so graceful, I believe that you may have some egyptian mau bloodlines in you???

Cheqna said...

Interesting project..and Ilham looked like the part of the warrior, with his kohl and all..:)

So where's the "mummy"? u didnt get his photo?

i amsterdam said...

Dear TK,

I do believe that our system definitely needs revamping. I do not say that we need to copy exactly, some of them may not be suitable. Children need to feel enjoyment of learning when they go to school.

Yes, we want to go to Egypt as well.. My DH had been there & he had the chance to go into the pyramid where normal tourists are not allowed in. How lucky he was.

Kami tengah pujuk la ni :))

i amsterdam said...

Dear Cheqna,

It's a pity I did not manage to get the "mummy" picture. It would be hillarious !!!

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