Our family, along with many other CC families from our campus, traveled into Philadelphia (ahead of the snow storm headed our way!) to visit the UPenn Museum of Archeology and Anthropology. We started our visit with a class, the Pharaoh Fashion Show, led by Jen. We learned so many neat things about pharaohs. Jen was great at including all the students and capturing their attention.
Bonus – they had a smart screen which the littles used during the class! (Incidentally, my husband now has a smart screen on his wish list for our home.)
During the class, we learned about the usekh, an ancient Egyptian collar necklace, and each student made their own. They really had fun doing that!
After finishing his usekh, my oldest was drawn in by this pharaoh face. He really wanted to try it on, but was too shy to ask the instructor, Jen.
Thankfully Jen volunteered that they could try it on. Perfect! For them, being on the inside of the mask was very cool. For me seeing them from the outside of the mask was the best part. Some hilarious photos were captured with them wearing this oversized pharaoh mask. : )
Next, we traveled through the many exhibits beginning with Egypt.
We saw so many great examples of hieroglyphics! This field trip was specifically selected because of the ancient studies we’re doing with cycle 1. So it was so cool to see the students making connections between what we’ve studied and what they were seeing. “Is this a real one?” was a question I heard again and again.
I love taking these types of trips with my littles and I’m always fascinated by what draws their attention. Each of them to different things and then they share their excitement with us! The attention grabber here are items depicting daily life that were buried with an egyptian for the “next life.”
My guys were so excited to run into a statue of Ramses II! and I get excited seeing them make Bible + History connections!
In the past, I may have mentioned I’m terrible at map reading, directions, etc. Learning geography with CC has been so good for me! My boys seem to be naturally gifted with maps, like my husband, so they were right there with him checking out all the maps of the ancient world on display around the museum. I’m so glad I’m not the only “teacher” in my family!
After lunch, we looped back around to see a few more exhibits and stumbled upon a hands-on exhibit with ancient toys, a wax school tablet, and lantern. Hands-on learning is my favorite! My boys kinda like it too. : )
And finally, another example of attention caught – my biggest little is trying to determine the size of this pharaoh’s feet and wondering if the statue size is true to life. What do you think?
So far, field trips have been a great success for us. We have a few more to look forward to before the year ends. What about y’all? I’d love to hear about the trips you’ve taken around your area!
Side note — if you ever plan a trip to the upenn museum, we thought the temperature in the exhibits was egyptian-like, so wear light layers!
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