There are many ways to introduce a topic to the children. Role play is usually very interesting or allowing them to find a topic they find interesting and giving them time to research. However, we have found that there are few ways more effective in engaging children than hands on experience.
And so we took all of the Year 5 children to the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery to give them time to experience some Egyptian artefacts up close.
We started by looking at all of the artefacts, hieroglyphics and sarcophagi that the museum had to offer and doing our very best to sketch these so we definitely had something to remember them by when we got back to school. The ancient sarcophagus and mummies certainly captured our imagination and had the children asking some very in depth and wonderful questions we can't wait to find the answers to.
After we had had a look around the rest of the museum, the children were able to observe some artefacts up close and even able to handle some! They had to become archaeologists, writing profiles for the artefacts they found or taking observation photographs. They also became restoration experts where they were able to try and piece together some artefacts that had previously been broken.
This was a fabulous trip that certainly met our objective of engaging the children in the topic and they came back with more knowledge and insightful questions that we can't wait to answer.
A huge thank you to all at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery that made the experience so educational and enjoyable.
