Ancient Egyptian Pyramids
Using mathematic nets to create these Ancient Egyptian Pyramids with individual mummies provide great opportunities for the children to use their mathematical knowledge of shape. We began by drawing a square based pyramid net on cardboard. This was done with a year 5 and 6 class so they already knew about the properties of shapes and the angels in an equilateral triangle. Most of the children could use this in their work. The cardboard I used was thick and their was a need for sharp scissors and adult support.
In the second session the children then created decorations for the inside using Egyptian hieroglyphs and painted the outside with a yellow base and drew brick patterns with pencils and felt tips. You could use tabs in the net to secure the sides together but I went for simple hole punch in the top tied with a pieces of string as the children were drawing their own nets.
During our third session the children created their mummies for the inside. I have seen this done with salt dough but I wanted to include as many maths opportunities as possible so went for the tin foil and masking tape. The children were given a couple of sheets of tin or aluminium foil. I modelled using the foil to create different 3D forms - which once put together would form their mummies. then with the second sheet of foil they wrapped in around to make the sarcophagus shape. Finally to give the mummy an authentic look we tore small strips of masking tape and wrapped it around the mummy as bandages.