Second Grade Time Travel

The second grade students have embarked on their trip back in time to ancient Egypt!  We started by asking what the students might think they already know about this amazing civilization, and it was wonderful to note that many of them shared things they had learned from last year's second grade class when they gave "Egypt Tours!"  Next we generated a list of questions they want to try to answer throughout the study.  Some of them included:

"Did they have toys?"
"How did they build the pyramids?"
"Did they have hospitals?"
"What kind of animals lived there?"

Reading parts of Egypt in the Past and Present aloud, provided an overview of the big ideas that we will be covering in the next few months.  Each student then received a new "Explorer's Notebook." This little book will give them a place to collect information and sketch when they learn something new! Using their experience of researching birds earlier this year, the students brainstormed categories that will help them organize the information they find.  They decided that many of the same categories apply, such as diet and appearance and adjusted others to fit more appropriately, such as making habitat into houses.

Many great books and "artifacts" have also appeared in the classrooms and are being explored by the students.