Today, the children in Year 3 enjoyed an amazing visit to the Great North Museum.
They spent some time in the Egyptian gallery looking at the exhibits about Egyptian life and in particular the Afterlife section. Here they explored mummified people and were fascinated by the two women, Bakt en Hor and Irtyru. The children all enjoyed an ‘Object Eye Spy’ activity and worked as a team to find ten different artefacts within the gallery. They also had the opportunity to explore other parts of the museum and enjoyed looking at dinosaur skeletons, plants, animals and fossils. Staff from the museum also led a workshop for the children about mummified people. In this, the children learnt about which organs were removed from the body and placed in canopic jars and explored how the brain was removed. They also looked at x-rays, photographs and a 3D replica skull which had been recreated using a CT scan. In addition, the children were given the chance to reflect on the advantages and disadvantages displaying mummified people in a museum. At the end of our trip, we then launched our new English text, The Ancient Egypt Sleepover. The children thoroughly enjoyed listening to the first chapter of the story in the museum, especially since the story is set in a museum.
