The Betas had a very full week! In math we began a new unit focusing on Place Value. We reviewed the importance of the placement of digits within a number and how it affects their value. These kids already know so much! When we finish our work early, we learn a new game to play to help reinforce skills. This week we used base ten blocks often to build numbers, so that the Betas have a good, concrete understanding of the quantities that various numbers represent.
In phonics this week we reviewed blends commonly found at the end of words (lk, lf, ft, lt, mp, nd, nch, nt, nd, and st). We practiced building words, sounding out and spelling words with blends, played a couple new games and read a couple of short stories featuring ending blends. Then we practiced finding the blends and answered comprehension questions about the stories. Our sight words this week were: who, what, where, when, why and how.
This week we worked on improving our writing by including dialogue, transition words, avoiding overuse of certain words (like “it”!) and using specific nouns. After a mini lesson on each topic, we practice applying the skill and search our own writing for opportunities to add it. As we go along we’re also working towards completing our personal narratives. For a read aloud example of nicely incorporated dialogue, we turned to Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.
The transformation has begun. From Beta to pharaoh! We have taken our profiles and pizzazzed them in such a way so we now look like the supreme leaders of the ancient land. Pharaohs were like kings or emperors. They ruled both upper and lower Egypt and were both the political and religious leaders. The Pharaoh was often thought of as one of the gods.
To the Pharaohs and all ancient Egyptians, the afterlife was very important to them. We learned that the ancient Egyptians believed each person was made up of five distinct parts – the physical body, the Ba, the Ka, the Name, and the Shadow.
Akh: The physical body was called the Akh. The Akh was most often used to mean a complete person, whether living or dead. While living, the Akh was composed of all five elements – your body, Ba, Ka, Name, and Shadow. When dead, the Akh referred to the reunion of the Ba and the Ka, which they believed happened each night.
Ba: The Ba was your personality, whatever made each person unique that was not physical – your humor, your warmth, your charm, yourself. The Ba is pictured in hieroglyphics as a bird with a human head. The Egyptians thought birds were able to fly between worlds, that of the living and the afterlife.
Ka: They believed every ancient Egyptians was born with a Ka that was uniquely theirs. Each Ka was a life force. The Ka is sometimes represented in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics by a drawing of a very little person standing next to a picture of the same person drawn much larger. Sometimes the Ka was represented by two arms, outstretched. This was to ward off evil. When a person died, their Ka continued to live. A Ka needed the same nourishment that a person needed, even after they died. That’s why the ancient Egyptians painted pictures of food on the walls of their tombs. They believed the Ka did not actually eat these paintings, but rather absorbed the life-giving force they represented, so the Ka could live forever.
Name: If something happened to your preserved body, or if your Name was not written down somewhere, the Ba and the Ka would get lost. They would not be able to find their way home to your tomb. You would disappear. Forever. You would not be able to watch over your family or to enjoy your afterlife.
Shadow: The 5th part, the shadow, was the shadow of a body reflected by the sun. In ancient Egypt, each shadow was considered powerful. Actually, pretty much anything that offered shade from the sun was considered powerful. Your shadow was considered your protection.
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