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A young Tutankhamun at Fordingbridge Junior School

IT was not all hieroglyphics on Thursday as pupils from Fordingbridge Junior School set aside their traditional lessons to enjoy a day of historical investigation, teamwork and enquiry, Egyptian style.

The 54 seven and eight year olds had just finished learning about ancient Egypt and so they and their teachers arrived for the day dressed in ancient costume and settled down to Egyptian brain teasers with authentic music in the background.

Their first task was to dig like an archaeologist for buried treasure.

Teams used string to make a grid of the area under investigation and then recorded their findings.

Then twigs and sticks were used to write, first in English and then in hieroglyphs.

Finally there was a Nile challenge where pairs of children had to collect sticks and other natural objects to use with a metre of string to build a boat.

And when the boats were tested most of them floated.

An Egyptian feast laid out on the floor in the shape of the Nile rounded off the day - curious children washed their hands in lemon water and then tried a selection of exotic foods including honey cakes and flat bread they had made the previous day.

Head teacher at the school, Jonathan Hannam, said: "Days like these bring history alive and really fire up children's imagination and curiosity.

"Working in groups and having the chance to be creative and inventive builds complete learners who can face new challenges in their lives and in their learning.

"You only have to look at these children to know they are enjoying their learning."

For more pictures of Egypt day at the school see tomorrow's Forest Journal

3:18pm Wednesday 14th May 2008

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