Post - Visit Activities
Contents
Reflecting
 Reflecting
 What do you think now? - pre/post visit questions
 Asking Questions about objects after the visit
Reporting
 Reporting on the day
 Exhibiting their work - Mini museum
 Time line sequencing
Debating
 Debating Citizenship Issues
 Balloon Debate
Developing
 Artefact stories
 Character profiles
 Website searches
Creating
 Create you own online gallery
 Making pots
 Museum Exhibit
 Seega Board Game
Activity ideas to inspire teaching staff shaded in yellow.
Activity sheets that could be used direct with children, not shaded.
Please also see section ‘Resources for your visit’.
Reflecting
A great way to follow up a visit to RAMM is to have a class discussion back in
school in your next history session.
Ask children to consider these questions and discuss with a partner or small
group:
What was your favourite artefact in the Museum? Why?
Were there any objects that surprised you? Why?
What have you learned about Egypt that you did not know before?
How has the visit made you think differently about the ancient Egyptians?
What kinds of materials did the ancient Egyptians use to make things?
What did you enjoy about your visit to RAMM?
What didn’t you enjoy about your visit to RAMM? How would you solve
these issues?
What do you think now?
Ask the same 5 or 6 key questions in the first lesson after the visit that you
asked them in a lesson before the visit to see what has been learned and
how perceptions may have changed, etc
Questions might include: Where do you think Egypt is?
How long ago is ‘ancient’?
What objects do you think survive today from ancient Egypt?
What do you think an archaeologist does?
How are we similar to the ancient Egyptians?
How are we different to the ancient Egyptians?
Would you have liked to live in ancient Egypt? (say why or why not)
Do you think it is right for museums to display human remains?
Do you think museums should return ancient Egyptian artefacts to
Egypt?
Asking Questions
Children often come up with questions related to the Museum and the
artefacts they have seen sometime after the visit.
They can then be encouraged to research these items further or they can
email any outstanding questions to RAMM at ramm.learning@exeter.gov.uk
and we will do our best to respond as quickly as we can.
Reporting on the day
Children can be encouraged to report on the day including information on the
who, what, where, when and why of the day.
Written reports help with literacy skills, group reports to the class often inspire
a variety of forms of presentation, and class assemblies to the rest of the
school can take on a life of their own!
Encourage the children to sequence the events of the day and to focus on the
special things the museum experience had to offer (rather than what went on
during the bus ride or what they had for lunch!)
Exhibiting their work
Children love to have their work on display – especially if they have planned
and made the display themselves.
So encourage groups to design their own display of follow up work to fit a
certain space, style or audience.
One effective way is to write some ‘labels’ to accompany photos explaining
where they went, what they did, etc.
Another method is to create their own mini-museum:
- bring in modern everyday objects that they are familiar with
- write their own object labels in which they explain how these objects
are similar or different to objects used by the ancient Egyptians
- or they could use images from this teachers pack to illustrate the
similarities or differences.
Sandals and Flip Flops
The tracing shows a pair of Egyptian sandals typically worn by the ancient Egyptians.
They are similar to today’s flip flops in their style.
However, Egyptian sandals are made from natural plant fibre whereas flip flops today
are made from rubber or plastic and can be all sorts of different colours.
Time Lines
Construct individual and / or whole class timelines to show the passage of
time and chronological order of events, as suggested in the pre visit activities.
These can then be added to or altered as necessary in the light of the trip to
the Museum.
Human time lines are often very effective where children all take on the role
of a particular character and/or re-enact a significant event and then have to
organise themselves in line according to the sequence of these historical
events.
Eg. Shepenmut
Cleopatra
Alexander
Nefertiti
Tutankhamen
invasion by the Hyksos
Roman rule
Building of the great pyramid, etc.
Relevant reference books and websites often include timelines, or one of the
timelines below could be used .
The ‘Time Line and Glossary’ download has further information.
Pre –
Dynastic
Intermediate
-3150BC
Pre –
Dynastic
Sand
mummies
buried in
the
desert.
-3150BC
Old
Kingdom
Intermediate
2613-2160BC
Intermediate
Old
Kingdom
Intermediate
Middle
Kingdom
2040-1750BC
Intermediate
Middle
Kingdom
Intermediate
Intermediate
New
Kingdom
1550-1070BC
New
Kingdom
Pyramids
at Giza
and the
Sphinx
were built
during
this
period.
Egypt
conquered
Nubia,
and
became a
strong
trading
power
during this
period.
Tutankhamun
and
Rameses II
reigned
during this
period.
26132160BC
20401750BC
15501070BC
Intermediate
Late
Period
71330BC
Late
Period
Alexander
The Great
and later
Cleopatra
Ruled.
Mummy of
Shepenmut
made in
Thebes
c 870BC
713-30BC
N.B. Discrepancies remain over the exact dates of the various periods, depending on the sources consulted.
These dates represent the most typical.
Debating Issues
A visit to the Museum can really prepare pupils for a range of citizenship
debates back in school, especially if children are aware that they will be
debating issues later.
Topics could include:
Should people be able to touch the ‘real thing’ when they come in to
visit museums?
Is it right for museums to display human remains?
Should museums in Britain return ancient Egyptian artefacts to Egypt?
Archaeologists, Egyptologists or Grave Robbers?
Please refer to the download ‘Archaeologists, Egyptologists or Grave
Robbers?’ for more information.
Balloon Debate
If you re-enacted the mummification process in your classroom, children
could debate who is the most important.
Each child could then prepare a case for why their character should stay in
the hot air balloon, (if magically transported to the present day!) or Nile river
boat (if keeping it ancient!)
They could present their reasons to the rest of the class.
The class can then ask each one a few questions before voting on which
character should stay in.
Hopefully they will realise that every member of the team is important!
Web searches
Web searches can throw up all sorts of information.
Children can be encouraged to undertake general searches if they are given
the open task of generating relevant questions for their classmates to
research.
These questions can then be posted on message boards in classrooms or
online to challenge other children and/or visitors.
Useful sites include:
The British Museum’
www.ancientegypt.co.uk
The Petrie Museum
www.petrie.ucl.ac.uk
The BBC
www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians
Cleveland Museum of Art
www.clemusart.com/educatn/animals
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
www.upennmuseum.com
Character Profiles
Children can work to develop the character of the role they played in the
Mummification session
This could include:
Name
Age
Type of home
Family members
Clothing worn
Job skills and responsibilities
Interests when not at work, etc.
Remind the children that the process of Mummification that they re-enacted
was typical at the time and place that the mummy Shepenmut was made ie.
c.870BC in Thebes. Practices did vary in other places and over time.
Children could then work on profiles for others who may have been friends or
relatives of their character.
Sample character briefs shown here could be used as examples to develop
new profiles.
Nakhte
(Nak-tee)
He was the son of a fisherman.
Lived in Gurob, near the Fayum, a fertile lush area of Egypt with a large lake
He was 12 years old
His father did not own his own boat, but he owned his own nets. He worked
with a group of other fishermen from a small fleet of boats and they sailed in
the Fayum lake catching fish.
Nakhte helped his father mend his nets as they would break if he caught lots
of fish. They would leave the nets out to dry in the sun at the end of each day.
His family was poor.
Nakhte’s mother also worked at home, weaving linen clothes.
Meret
(Me-ret)
Meret was a hairdresser from the New Kingdom.
She worked during the long reign of Rameses II, about 3,200 years ago.
She lived at Gurob, at the entrance to the Fayum - a very fertile, lush area of
Egypt with a large lake.
In the time of Rameses II there was a big palace for wives and daughters of
the king, some of them from other countries. Meret prepared the wigs for
wealthy men and women at the palace at Gurob. She was quite wealthy from
this business.
She had a large family to support on her own, as her husband had been killed
in battle.
She owned a one-storey house in the town with a courtyard and rooms
around it.
Paneb
(Pa-neb)
He was an artist – he drew the outlines of pictures and hieroglyphs.
He lived with his family in the village over the hill from the Valley of the Kings,
in the 19th Dynasty, about 3,200 years ago.
He helped decorate 5 tombs of the Pharaohs buried in the Valley.
He was a foreman, which means he was in charge of other workers like stone
masons and painters. There are many surviving inscriptions, letters and
accounts that mention him and his family and workmates. These writings and
the preserved walls of the village give us a good picture of their lives.
He had an important job and was paid better than most workers.
He could afford to buy fine linen clothes and wear good sandals to work.
He also provided well for his family who had wooden furniture and copper
cooking pots and tableware in the home.The family were well off, but not rich.
Online Gallery
Children could create their own online gallery using sketches and/or photos
taken on the day of their visit.
They could gather inspiration for this by visiting other online galleries at
various museums, eg. www.petrie.ucl.ac.uk
They could supplement their own notes with information included in the
download ‘The collection of Ancient Egyptian artefacts at RAMM’, as shown
below, and then write their own object labels to accompany each item.
54-56
Amulet: Eye of Horus, symbolic of healing
and protection. Made out of glazed
ceramics, granite and carnelian stone.
Making pots
Children could make replica pots using drawings and
photographs they have taken on their trip and/or pictures in the
teachers pack.
Using pictures of broken pieces of pottery, challenge the children
to see if they can draw, then reconstruct what it would have
looked like when complete.
Museum Exhibit
Discuss the purpose of a museum with children.
Ask them to think about their experiences in museums and answer these
questions
22-24
Necklaces
Cylindrical or annular beads on a string
used to decorate mummies. Often made
of blue faience and sometimes also white,
green and red.
What is a museum?
How is a museum used?
Why are museums important?
What do curators actually do?
205 1795BC
Challenge the children to take on the role of curator in an imaginary museum.
Encourage groups to collect pictures of artefacts from books, magazines,
websites, post cards, photos or this teachers pack. Using this as the
collection :
what would they display?
how would they display it?
how would they label I?
what theme or topic would it have?
what title would they give it?
Ask pupils to think about how museums present objects and what support
materials are provided in exhibitions such as labels and gallery guides.
Then design the set up of their exhibit, including appropriate labels for an
audience identified by the children eg. KS 1 children, family groups, adults
only etc. Explain that mos museums have to cater for a wide range of visitors.
Children could then make replica artefacts for their display, and create an
exhibition guide using the labels the children have written.
Hold a party to celebrate the opening of the exhibit!
Seega Board Game
This is an ancient 2-player game but is still played by young Egyptians today.
It is easy to play and has similarities to the game ‘noughts and crosses’ which
you might already know.
Decide which player is going to be blue and which is going to be white.
Set up the board, as shown below:
Players take it in turns to move 1 of their pieces either 1 or 2 squares on the
board.
Players can move in any direction but cannot pass over another piece.
The winner of the game is the first player to get their 3 pieces in a straight line
(diagonal included) other than the starting line.
Have fun!