Lesson video

Hello, everyone, and welcome to your third lesson on Ancient Egypt.

My name is Mrs. Tipping, and in this lesson, we are going to tackle the question, "Why was the River Nile important to the Ancient Egyptians?" In this lesson, we'll learn about how important the River Nile was and how it provided the Ancient Egyptians with everything they needed for daily life.

So let's get started.

Now, for this lesson, you need to make sure that you're sat somewhere comfortable without any distractions so that you can capture all the knowledge from this lesson.

You're going to need a couple of things, an exercise book or paper, a pencil or a pen, and finally, your fantastic brains.

Now, if you haven't got any of those things, go and quickly grab them now.

Okay, let's take a look at the lesson structure.

First, I'm going to share some key words with you, and then, we're going to talk about where the River Nile is.

The next question we'll look at is why the Ancient Egyptians lived by the River Nile, and then what the River Nile provided the Ancient Egyptians with.

We'll end our lesson with our end of lesson quiz.

So let's start with some keywords.

The first word is inundation.

My turn, your turn, inundation.

Inundation means flooding.

The second word is papyrus.

My turn, your turn, papyrus.

Papyrus is a plant that is used for many things.

One of those things is making paper.

Third word is Akhet.

My turn, your turn, Akhet.

Akhet is the season of flooding.

It's the name for the season.

My turn, your turn, Peret.

Peret is the season of growing.

And finally, Shemu.

My turn, your turn, Shemu.

Shemu is the season of harvest.

So these important words are going to pop up throughout our lesson.

So let's start with where the River Nile is.

The River Nile is the longest river in Africa, and it's the longest river in the world.

The River Nile is about 4,160 metres.

miles, sorry, in length.

Although it is generally linked with Egypt, only 22% of the Nile's course runs through Egypt.

The River Nile originates in Burundi, south of the equator, and flows northward through northeastern African, eventually flowing through Egypt and finally draining into the Mediterranean Sea.

So the River Nile is the longest river in.

Let's select two options.

Is it A.

Africa, B.

Asia, C.

Europe, or D.

the world? So choose two, point to two answers or write them down or say them aloud.

The River Nile is the longest river in.

Finish that sentence.

The answer is A and D, it's the longest river in Africa and in the world.

Good job if you got that right.

Now let's find out why the Ancient Egyptians lived by the River Nile.

Ancient Egypt could not have existed without the River Nile.

Egypt is around 90% desert.

So the River Nile creates a fertile green valley across the desert.

The Ancient Egyptians lived and farmed by the banks of the river.

The River Nile was extremely important and influenced the Egyptian calendar for the year.

So let's see if we can answer this question correctly.

How much of Egypt is desert? Is it A.

80%, B.

90%, C.

50%, or D.

75%? Shout out your answer or write it down.

Which one is it? How much of Egypt is desert? Well done if you guessed B.

B is the correct answer.

Egypt is 90% desert.

Every year, between June and September, the River Nile flooded, providing the only source of moisture to sustain crops.

The Egyptians called this season Akhet.

When the flood receded, which means the flood moved back, it left thick, rich mud called black silt which was excellent soil to plant seeds in afterwards.

Once the soil had been ploughed and the seeds planted, they used the soil to produce food for themselves and their animals.

Ancient Egyptians called the river Ar because of the colour of the sediment left after the river's annual flood.

Ar means "black" in Egyptian.

I'd like you to please pause the video now to complete this task and answer the following questions.

When did the River Nile flood? What was the important thing the flood left behind? And the Ancient Egyptians called the river Ar, why? Okay, so hopefully, you paused the video and had a go with those questions.

Let's take a look at the answers.

The River Nile flooded between June and September.

The important thing it left behind was black silt, or you might have put thick mud.

And the river was called Ar because Ar means black which is the colour of what the flood left behind.

The Egyptian farmers followed a calendar split into three seasons based on the cycles of the River Nile.

Akhet is the season of inundation.

This was when the River Nile would flood and farmland would be covered in up to two metres of water.

This happened between June and September and no farming was done at this time.

Peret is the season of growth, when the soil would be ploughed and seeds would be planted.

The Egyptians would also set up an irrigation system to make sure crops got the water they needed.

This happened between October and February.

Finally, Shemu is the season of harvest.

This happened between March and May.

The fully grown crops had to be cut down, harvested, and removed before the River Nile flooded again.

So I'd like you to pause the video now and I'd like you to draw a circle very similar to the one on the screen, with the arrows going round, and label the Egyptian calendar to show the stages of the year that the Ancient Egyptians followed.

So use those three words, Akhet, Peret, and Shemu.

You need to put them in the correct order on the circle to show as they go around the year calendar.

You could also draw pictures to show what happened.

So pause the video now, and then restart once you're finished.

Okay, so hopefully, your circle looks a bit like this, and we've got Akhet to start with, then Peret, and then Shemu, and it goes around the year cycle like that.

And hopefully, you got some pictures of Akhet, showing the flood, and Peret, showing the grain and the crops growing, and Shemu, showing them cutting down the crops and harvesting them.

So now, let's take a look at what the River Nile provided.

Next to the River Nile, Egyptians grew crops such as wheat, barley, vegetables, and lots of different fruits like figs, melons, pomegranates, and vines.

They also grew something called flax, which is the picture at the bottom here of the brown, long-looking crop, and they used that to make linen, which is a type of cloth.

The most important crop was grain, which is the top picture you can see here.

Grain was the first crop they grew after the flooding season.

And once the grain was harvested, they grew vegetables, such as onions and leaks, cabbages and beans.

Farmers planted fruit trees and vines along paths to give shade as well as the fruit that they gave.

The Egyptians would also use spears and nets to catch the fish as well as the birds that flew close to the surface of the water on the River Nile.

The Egyptians also used the River Nile for bathing, drinking, and leisure, so lots of things the River Nile provided.

Let's take a look now at this statement.

Grain was the most important crop to the Ancient Egyptians.

Is that true or false? Have a think.

Write your answer down, or say it out loud.

Was grain the most important crop? The answer is true.

Grain was the most important crop because it could make many things such as bread, porridge, and beer.

It could also be traded and used to pay taxes.

Ancient Egyptians had simple farming tools such as winnowing scoops, which were used in pairs with one held in each hand to separate the cereal from straw and other rubbish, other debris.

So they would use them a bit like this, putting them together.

Hoes and rakes were used to dig up the earth and reveal the nutrients.

So they would dig them a bit like a spade.

The Egyptians both had hand ploughs and ones pulled by oxen.

The ploughs were used to turn the soil.

Reapers, which were what the men were called that cut the ripe corn, would use wooden sickles edged with sharp flints, and flint is a type of rock.

Here's a picture of a sickle on the screen now.

Women and children would follow behind the reapers to collect any fallen ears of corn.

They called them ears.

Okay, so I'd like you to pause your video now to complete this task.

I'd like you to complete these sentences using the words in the pink box given.

So we've mm and mm were used to dig up the soil.

To turn the soil, mm were used.

To cut the corn, mm were used.

So you got the words there to choose from, hoes, ploughs, rakes, and sickles.

Okay, so pause the video and restart once you're finished.

So hopefully, you had a good go at that.

Let's take a look at the answers.

Hoes and rakes were used to dig up the soil, like a spade.

To turn the soil, ploughs were used.

And to cut the corn, sickles were used.

Well done if you got all of those correct.

Now, let's take a look at some other things that the Nile provided the Egyptian people with.

The Nile delta was an ideal growing location for the papyrus plant.

Ancient Egyptians used the papyrus plant in many ways such as making cloth, boxes, and rope, but by far, its most important use was making paper.

So you can see a picture of the papyrus plant here, and then next to it is the type of paper they'd be able to make from the papyrus plant.

It was a grass-like plant, and when it was cut, you would remove the stems, and those stems would then be sliced into strips.

These strips were then laid out in rows on top of one another, and then the strips would be turned and they would lay them on top at a right angle.

The layers would then be dampened and pressed together like a sheet of paper.

This sheet was then left out in the sun to dry making the plant have a kind of glue.

It was like a sap which would heat up in the sun and then dry like a glue.

Finally, the dried sheet of stems is then hammered and stuck together with other bits of the paper made.

So it would make a roll of paper for writing, drawing, or even painting.

So let's have a go at the final task of this lesson.

So you'll have to have a little think about this.

I want you to write out the correct order of steps to make papyrus paper.

So here are each of the steps, and you need to find out what's the correct order and write them out in order, either in a paragraph or just one after the other.

So pause the video now and restart once you're finished.

Okay, let's take a look at the correct order.

So here's the correct order.

The plant is cut to remove the stem layers and sliced into thin strips.

The strips are laid out in rows topped with another layer at right angles.

The layers are then dampened and pressed together into a sheet.

The sheet is then left out to dry in the sun.

And then the dried sheet of stems is hammered and stuck together with other sheets to make that roll of paper.

So well done if you got those steps in the correct order.

Great work today.

That is the end of our lesson.

Thank you again for working so hard, and I hope you see you at our next Ancient Egyptian lesson soon.

Thank you, good bye!.