Lesson Plan 1

Teacher Lesson Plan 3

Title:

The Queen’s Letter

Subject:

Social Studies (Ancient Egypt), Roles of Women, Writing, and Technology

Grade Level:

5^th Grade

Time Duration:

1-2 lab periods of approximately 45 - 60 minutes.

1 class period if writing by hand

Overview:

Students will read about three important Female Pharaohs and the role of women in Ancient Egyptian society. They will then write a letter as the queen detailing her life and achievements while comparing her to women of her time.

Objectives:

The Learner will:

· Research information about three Egyptian Queens

· Write a letter that accurately reflects the accomplishments, time period, and victories she achieved

· Compare her role in society to that of the “common” woman

· Write the letter using the correct format

· Work in cooperative jigsaw groups for reading and retelling information read (this is optional)

Materials:

· Computer

· Internet connection

· Adobe Acrobat Reader Plug-in

· Word processing program if they will be writing their letters this way

· Printer

· Paper

· Pencils

· Hand out with URLs of the web sites to be used or have them bookmarked and ready to go

· TeamBoard if available, this is a nice too for projecting web sites on to a screen for group viewing.

· Hatshepsut – The Woman who was King found at http://www.eyelid.co.uk/k-q1.htm

· The Guardian.net has articles on a number of different queens at http://www.guardians.net/egypt/

· Who’s Who of Ancient Egypt: Nefertiti at http://www.guardians.net/egypt/

· Cleopatra Timeline at http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/bl_time_cleo.htm

· The Last Pharoah This article is about Cleopatra but also has some information on women in general. http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa031699.htm

· Cleopatra VII at http://interoz.com/egypt/cleopatr.htm

· Three Queens of Egypt found at National Geographic http://www.nationalgeographic.com/world/0109/ws_main.html

· Hatshepsut is found at Neferchichi’s Tomb http://www.neferchichi.com/hatshepsut.html

· Nefertiti – The Great Royal Wife at http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/ancient_egypt/9329

· Printable Egyptian letter head stationary http://www.egyptvoyager.com/download_pdf.htm

· Status of Women in Ancient Egyptian Society http://www.csd.k12.wi.us/EGYWOMEN.HTM

Activities and Procedures:

1. Tell students that today they are going to examine the lives of three great Egyptian Queens and the role that common women had in society. Lead them in a discussion comparing and contrasting the roles of Queens today and commoners.

2. Tell them they will have to write a letter that introduces one of the queens to a king far away. They must write it as if they are the queen, detailing her life and comparing and contrasting her role to the role of common women in ancient Egypt. They want the king far away to be impressed by the queen’s greatness.

3. Tell students they will need to have the following information in their letter, the queen’s name, time period of her reign, accomplishments, any great battles and victories, and how she was different from the common women of her time.

4. Have students click on the student page link. They will go to the websites that are listed on the page and they must read the information. All students must read the Three Queens of Egypt article first. They will then choose which queen they wish to write the letter about. You can use jig sawing with groups for this activity. Each student can take a turn in their group reading and summarizing a few paragraphs of information until they have read it all. This retelling of the material will allow them a greater depth of understanding.

5. Lastly, students will read the article on the Status of Ancient Egyptian Women.

6. Have students print off a sheet of Egyptian stationary to write their letter on.

7. Review the components of a letter. Students will need to write their letter making sure they use good grammar and writing conventions. Students may write their letters using a word processing program or in the class using pencil and paper.

Conclusion:

Ask students to share their letter with the class.

This lesson is based on a lesson plan by LRBrain@hotmail.com. The original lesson plan can be found at http://wwwfac.wmdc.edu/HTMLpages/Graduate/TI/pages/LRB/lp2.htm.