SUZANNE RUMMEL MEREDITH DILLE ED OCTOBER 22, 2001

EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHICS 7 TH GRADE SOCIAL STUDIES

OBJECTIVES THE STUDENTS WILL LEARN FROM THE BACKGROUND INFORMATION WHO A SCRIBE IS AND WHAT HE DOES. THE STUDENTS WILL LEARN THE NEW VOCABLARY WORDS AFTER LISTENING TO THE BACKGROUND INFORMATION. THE STUDENTS WILL LEARN TO WRITE ONE SHORT SENTENCE IN HIEROGLYPHICS USING THE TECHNIQUE SHOWN BY THE TEACHER.

MATERIALS CONSTRUCTION PAPER MARKER HIEROGLYPHIC HANDOUT PENCIL OVERHEAD TRANSPARENCY

WEBSITES egypt.com/new/html/hieroglyphicshttp:// egypt.com/new/html/hieroglyphics o.htmlhttp://personalwebs.myriad.net/steveb/hier o.html treasures.com/hiero.htmlhttp:// treasures.com/hiero.html

ACTIVITIES LANGUAGE ARTS: Once the students finish writing their sentences, they should look at them and decide does it take more space to write in English or in hieroglyphics? Then they should write a few sentences and tell why they think that. SOCIAL STUDIES: Students should see if they can find any other cultures that use any writing styles similar to hieroglyphics. MATH: Students can use their completed hieroglyphics to count how many letters it takes to write the sentence in English and in Hieroglphics and find the difference between the two.

Science: The students could experiment with powdered colors to see how many new and different colors they can create. VOCABULARY: Students can write their vocabulary words in Hieroglphics.

EGYPT Does anyone know anything about Egypt? How many letters do we have in our alphabet? Can you guess how many letters are in the Egyptian alphabet? How do we know so much about the Egyptian culture? What percentage of the population do you believe could read and write in ancient Egypt?

We know so much about the Egyptians because they have a written language- hieroglyphics.

We know in our alphabet there are 26 letters. In hieroglyphics there are 27 signs to represents sounds, there are also an additional 700 signs that could be used in various combinations to represent words, phrases or sentences.

All agreements, legal and business, were recorded but only a few people knew how to read or write. The people who knew how to read and write were called scribes and they were in great demand.

Hieroglyphics were carved into stone on monuments and painted on walls of burial tombs.

Scribes went to schools that were attached to temples and the royal court. Boys who came from wealthy families started five years of training at a school or with a private tutor at the age of nine.

The girls of wealthy families were taught to read and write at home. The students who went to schools studied history, science, and math. A scribe that was well educated could rise in rank and become very rich ad powerful.

Students sat on the floor to study. The materials he would need to write with were also kept on the floor. Scribes used boards, brushes, and ink.

The master would sit on a beautiful carved and painted stool. There was a special school that only the sons of scribes could attend it was called the House of Life.

Students would spend days practicing their writing on wooden boards coated with plaster, using a brush made from reeds and ink made form soot.

When something important was to be saved scribes would write it on papyrus. It takes students such a long time to become a scribe because of all the hieroglyphs he had to learn.

Once a scribe could read and write, he would have an honored job for life. They kept records and assisted the royal family and high priests in running the nation.

Even though they had an honored job they still were low on the ranks of society. There are seven levels, with the pharaoh on the top.

The scribes are the fifth level down. The only people below them are the skilled workers and the farmers and peasants.