Magical Days - Archaeology Day

It's been a crazy couple of weeks in our house!

With the new adjustment to our Homeschool routine - and my realisation that I have, in fact, taken on a full-time job in becoming my childrens' teacher as well as continuing to be a full-time stay-at-home mum - there hasn't been a lot of time for blogging. Or sleep.

In fact, I haven't even had a chance to share August's Magical Days Calendar (sorry!). 

This month, we have chosen to celebrate Archaeology Day which falls on Monday, the 17th of August.

Archaeology is the the study of human history and prehistory through the excavation of sites and the analysis of artefacts and other physical remains. (Not to be confused with Palaeontology which is the study of prehistoric animals, such as dinosaurs.)

Here are some of the best and easiest ideas that we'll be using on Monday...

* The Archaeological Institute of America has some fantastic lesson plans and ideas for exploring archaeology.  Watch this introductory video for inspiration.

* This layer cake looks like a fantastic way of introducing the idea of strata and how civilisations build on top of one another.

* The AIA also has great instructions on setting up a dig. They have one in a transparent box to introduce the concept of strata, a Shoe-box dig which demonstrates how proper digs are performed 'blind', and a bigger-scale, school-yard dig which is just amazing! I love that all of these are set up with a back story and incredible details. This is the link to instructions on setting up all of the digs.


* I love this simple 'ancient' pot from Tikkido. Might be fun to make one of these and bury it in the sand pit. (Though, keep in mind that sand is very loose and any sand pit 'dig' will be over quite quickly and will not be able to demonstrate strata.)

 

* This lesson on Pompeii is awesome! What an amazing Lego city!

* Why not spend the day talking about ancient cultures. Here's some ideas from our unit on Egypt. 

* Read a book about archaeology. We love the adventure novel The Phoenix Code by Helen Moss, which is fantastic for nine year olds up.

* Or forget about the kids and just cuddle up while they're in bed and watch your favourite Indiana Jones film! (We've decided they're a bit too scary for our boys.)


Of course, it's never too late to join in the Magical Days fun. Here's what the rest of August has in store for us...