Lesson video

Hello.

I'm Ms. Roberts.

It's really good to meet you today.

I'm going to be your history teacher, and together, in this unit, we are going to be learning about Ancient Egypt.

Ancient Egypt was growing during the Bronze Age, so you are going to be building on what you already know about the Bronze Age from your previous learning about Bronze Age Britain.

This is the first lesson in this unit about Ancient Egypt, so you are going to encounter a lot of new information and facts today.

Don't worry, though, I will be guiding you through this lesson and the rest of the unit step by step.

So don't worry if you're unsure about anything at first, I'm here to help.

Let's make a start together on today's lesson.

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to describe where and when the Ancient Egyptians lived, and you'll be able to explain why the River Nile was so important for them.

This is going to be very interesting.

Let's begin now, by looking at some keywords that we are going to be using a lot in this lesson.

It's important that you understand what these keywords mean so that you can use them yourself later to talk about Ancient Egypt.

Two of the keywords today, are actually what we call abbreviations.

An abbreviation is when we use letters to represent a group of words, okay? We'll see what they are in a moment.

Listen carefully to each word and repeat after me.

Our first word today is civilization.

Can you say that one? Well done! Our next word today is one of those abbreviations I just mentioned.

This abbreviation is the two letters, BC, you say, great.

And now our next abbreviation, very similar, but with an extra letter we have BCE, you try.

Well done! And our fourth and final keyword for today is the word fertile.

Can you try that one? Good job, okay, we're going to move on now and see exactly what these words mean.

So let's start with the first word, civilization.

A civilization is a group of people who are very well-organized, and they have their own language, and their own way of life.

Let's now look at those two abbreviations.

The first one, if you remember, was BC.

Now BC stands for 'Before Christ.

' This abbreviation is talking about the time before the year 1, and the year 1 is the year that people believe that Jesus was born.

So anything that happened before that year, can be referred to as BC.

The next abbreviation is BCE.

BCE stands for 'Before the Common Era, and this also is talking about the time before the year 1.

That's the year that people believe that Jesus was born.

So anything that happened before that year, happened BCE.

So be careful with those two abbreviations because the B means Before, but the C does not mean the same thing in both.

We are going to be using BCE as we move forward in this unit.

The final keyword was the word fertile.

Now, fertile is a term to do with farming.

And when we talk about soil or land where farmers grow their crops or their plants, lands that is very good for growing those crops is said to be fertile because the plants and crops can grow well.

Okay, great work! So listen out for those keywords as we go along today, and then I'll point them out when we come across them too.

Let's move along.

This is how our lesson is structured today.

There are two parts to the lesson.

First, we are going to investigate when and where the Ancient Egyptians lived, and later, we'll be looking at the River Nile.

So let's get going and find out all about the Ancient Egyptians.

When and where did the Ancient Egyptians live? The Ancient Egyptians were a civilization that lived around 5,000 years ago.

That's a long time into the past.

At one time in history, there had been two separate kingdoms, there was Upper Egypt and there was Lower Egypt.

Then, in around 3000 BCE, they were united into one kingdom and they became the great civilization called the Ancient Egyptians.

And Sam gives us a little reminder there, that BC and BCE are used for the years before the year 1, when people believe that Jesus was born.

So the Ancient Egyptians were indeed alive before the year 1, 3,000 years before the year 1, in fact, wow! This civilization lasted for an incredibly long time.

So how did the Egyptian civilization begin? The first-ever king of Egypt was called Menes.

He became the ruler of this newly-formed Ancient Egyptian civilization when those two kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt became one.

He was the first of what would be many great Egyptian rulers to come.

In Ancient Egypt, there was a special word that they used for their rulers and that was pharaohs, they were the kings or queens, and you're going to find out a lot more to do with pharaohs later in this unit.

Let's have a quick pit stop and check on our learning so far.

Here you can see a timeline, but two of the labels on this timeline are missing, you can see where the question marks are.

I want you to fill in the missing information.

The boxes on the top row are years, and the boxes on the bottom row are descriptions.

Take some time now to complete the timeline and remember, you can work with a partner for extra support.

Okay, are you ready? Let's start on the left-hand side of the timeline.

The left side is their furthest back in history.

The year at the end of the timeline on the left is 3000 BCE.

I have added this label to the end of my timeline.

It was the start of the Ancient Egyptian civilization.

You might have said the same thing or you might have said that Menes became king, or you might have said that Upper and Lower Egypt were united.

Both of those facts are correct as well, great job! Next, we have a year that is missing from the timeline, right in the middle there.

This is the year, according to the description, that people believe that Jesus was born.

What year have you put on your timeline? I have put the year 1, well done! Let's continue to find out more about the Ancient Egyptians.

Look at the picture, this shows a photo of a pyramid, and for many people when they think of Ancient Egypt, this is exactly the kind of picture that springs to mind.

Ancient Egypt was a very large area in North Africa.

Today, the country of Egypt is still found there in North Africa in roughly the same area.

Many important landmarks from Ancient Egypt, like this pyramid still exist, and thousands of visitors flock to Egypt every year to go and see these amazing sites.

The pyramid in this photograph is called the Great Pyramid, and this was built in a place called Giza.

You'll be finding out more about the Great Pyramid later in the unit.

Here you can see a map, look closely, it shows the River Nile.

If you count them, you'll see that the River Nile flows through 11 different countries.

The River Nile flows through Northeast Africa, and it's more than 4,000 miles long, which makes it Africa's longest river.

It starts at Lake Victoria and then flows all the way through those 11 countries until it reaches the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Egypt.

It was around this mighty river that the Ancient Egyptian civilization began to grow.

Okay, we're going to have a quick pit stop now and check our learning again, this time, by thinking about a sentence.

The sentence says that, "The River Nile starts in Egypt." I want you to decide if that is true or if that is false.

Have a think now.

Have you decided? Did you choose false? Great work! The answer is indeed false, that sentence is not correct.

Now, we can't just say that that is false or something else is true, unless we can give some factual information to justify our answer.

In other words, to explain how we know that that sentence is false.

So I'm going to show you two possible options here, of facts that we can use to explain why we know that this sentence is false.

I want you to pick the best one of the two sentences.

Sentence A.

The end of the River Nile is in Egypt, where it flows into the sea.

B, the end of the River Nile is in Egypt, where it flows into Lake Victoria.

Which one of those sentences is the best in this situation? Did you choose A? Well done! We know that the River Nile ends in Egypt.

It doesn't start in Egypt, it ends there.

It starts in Lake Victoria, so Sentence B there, really is incorrect.

Well done, that was great work! Let's now use what you know for another activity.

I'm going to show you five sentences, and for each one, I want you to choose the best word to complete the sentence.

You can only choose from the options provided.

I will read the questions to you one by one, and then you will have some time to complete the activity.

Sentence 1.

Egypt is a country in the north of Africa or Asia.

Question 2.

The River Nile flows into the Red Sea or the Mediterranean Sea.

Question 3.

The Ancient Egyptian civilization began when two kingdoms were split or when two kingdoms were united.

Question 4.

The Ancient Egyptian civilization began or ended around the year 3000 BCE.

And the last one, Question 5.

In Ancient Egypt, the people were called Pharaohs, or the rulers were called Pharaohs.

Take some time now to make your choices, and remember you can work with a partner for extra support.

All done? Great, okay, let's have a look at these answers together.

Firstly, Egypt is a country in the north of "Africa," well done! The River Nile flows into the "Mediterranean" Sea.

Number 3, the Ancient Egyptian civilization began when two kingdoms were "united." Number 4, the Ancient Egyptian civilization "began" around the year 3000 BCE, and Number 5, the last one.

In Ancient Egypt, the "rulers" were called Pharaohs.

Good stuff, well done, you've learned a lot already today.

Let's move along now to the second part of our lesson.

Now we are going to think about why the River Nile was so important for the Ancient Egyptians.

Without the River Nile, the Ancient Egyptian civilization probably would not have grown and developed the way it did, it was essential for them.

So let's find out why.

The main reason the River Nile was so important was because it provided fertile soil for farming.

Do you remember the meaning of the word fertile from the keywords that we looked at earlier? Remember, fertile land is land that is very good for growing crops.

Now, you may be wondering, "Why was the land around the river now so fertile?" Well, when the river flooded thick, black mud from below the river bed was washed all over the surrounding land, and then the land turned black.

All of that mud soaked deep into the soil and made the soil very fertile.

This meant that the crops could grow very easily there because of all the lovely nutrients in the soil that came from that thick, black mud of the River Nile.

Now, flooding was not a one-off event.

Flooding actually happened in a predictable pattern at the same time every year.

So that helped the Ancient Egyptian farmers to be able to plan when they could grow and when they could harvest their crops.

Let's have a quick check on the learning so far.

Here's a multiple-choice question with three options, listen carefully.

What happened each year that turned the land surrounding the River Nile black? Was it A fires, B, floods, or C, frost? Have a think and make your choice.

Are you ready? Who chose option B? I did, and that's the right answer.

Rivers floods, don't they? They don't catch fire.

And that also tells us that option C here, frost is incorrect.

Frost is not very good for forming at all because very cold frost can seriously damage or even destroy plants.

Okay, so that's the first thing we know about why the River Nile was so important for the Ancient Egyptians because of that precious, fertile land.

Let's discover some more about farming in Ancient Egypt.

Here you can see a picture of an Ancient Egyptian farmer with some cattle.

It was thanks to the fertile soil around the river, that the Ancient Egyptian civilization began to be able to make money from farming.

In fact, they made a lot of money from farming.

They grew crops like cereals, and they farmed animals such as cattle and goats.

They used their own handmade tools, and they kept some animals to help with ploughing and harvesting.

Then, they could transport their produce along the River Nile in boats, and it would be taken to the places where it was sold.

And so, many people in Ancient Egypt lived in villages dotted all around the River Nile.

In those villages, they could easily grow crops and make money from them, and over time, those villages would grow bigger and bigger, and it was all thanks to farming.

Now, it wasn't just farming that made the River Nile such a great location for the Ancient Egyptians, it had another very special and unique aspect.

Let's see what that was.

It was a very safe place for them to live.

And the reason for that, was because of a desert that was surrounding them.

A desert is a huge, very hot, very dry area of land that is mostly covered with sand.

Deserts are very hard to cross, and for that reason, it would help to keep enemies away from those Ancient Egyptian villages.

So the people of Ancient Egypt had the perfect location really to live, to survive, and expand their civilization.

You can see the Sahara Desert in the photo, this is just one small part of the Sahara Desert that surrounds Egypt.

Take a look, there is no sign of life as far as you can see.

It would take enemies a long time to try to cross the desert, and it would be very hot and uncomfortable for them.

And so the Ancient Egyptians remain safely in their villages around the River Nile.

Let's stop there and have a quick check on our learning.

Here's another sentence, and I want you to decide, again, if this is true or false.

The sentence states, "The land around the River Nile was a great location for Ancient Egyptian villages to develop." Have a think and make a decision.

Do think that is true, or do you think that is false? Have you decided? Did you choose true? Well done, that's the right answer! Now don't forget, we need to think of some factual information to explain why we know that is true.

So now, I'm gonna give you two more sentences, and you are going to choose which one of those sentences is the best one to explain why we can say that this is true.

The sentences are A, the River Nile was very pretty and there was lots of wildlife in the Sahara Desert.

B, the River Nile provided fertile soil and the Sahara Desert provided protection from enemies.

Have a think and decide whether Sentence A or Sentence B is the best one to explain why we know the first statement is true.

Did you choose option B? Well done, that's the right answer.

The River Nile had all that beautiful fertile soil surrounding it, and the Sahara Desert around the outside of Egypt, provided great protection for them.

So really, the Ancient Egyptians had the perfect place to grow and develop, didn't they? Well done! Now we're going to move on to the last activity for this lesson, and it's an activity that is going to help you to recall all of the new vocabulary that you have heard about the Ancient Egyptians today.

There are 10 words hidden in this puzzle, they're all related to Ancient Egypt and you need to find them.

Now, you need to look very carefully because words can read across, horizontally, or they can read vertically, or diagonally, they may even be backwards.

Take some time now to complete the activity and find those words.

For an additional challenge, when you finish, you can talk to a partner and take turns to explain to each other the meanings of each word.

Pause the video now, while you complete the activity.

Finished? Great job, let's have a look now, I'll show you where the words are, did you manage to find them all? You can see there, Pharaoh, in the very first column as you come down, and on the very last column on the right-hand side, we've got Desert there hidden away.

I hope you enjoyed that activity, and it is close to finishing time now.

So we're going to end by having a summary of what we have learned so far.

This is what we know about the Ancient Egyptians from today's lesson.

We know that the Ancient Egyptian civilization began in around 3000 BC, or BCE when the two kingdoms of Egypt, being Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt were united.

We know that Ancient Egyptian settlements grew around the River Nile.

The River Nile is the longest river in Africa.

We know that the Ancient Egyptians successfully farmed on the fertile land around the river.

The fertile land was caused by the regular floods that covered the land in thick, black mud.

We know that the fertile land around the River Nile and the protection provided by the Sahara Desert are two key factors that helped the Ancient Egyptian civilization to grow, develop, and prosper.

I wonder what we're going to learn in our next lesson about Ancient Egypt.

Join me then, to find out some more.

Bye, for now!.