Lesson plan based on Amenemhet
Determine and compare hieroglyph content and frequency to an alternative alphabet based on symbols that mimic sounds of the alphabet.
Skills and Focus: Calculation
Subject Area: Mathematics
Thematic Connection: Signs and Symbols
Grade Level: Elementary School
Time Needed: 60 minutes
Objectives
• Understand the relative frequency of hieroglyphs on the relief.
Instructional Materials Needed
Story: What Does This Show?
Activity
Step 1: Using the printout of the stone relief, have students decide which images are hieroglyphs and which ones are not.
Step 2: Ask students to count the total number of hieroglyphs and then to cross out the duplicate hieroglyphs. Ask students to count the number of individual hieroglyphs that remain.
Critical Thinking Ask students to
• state how many hieroglyphs show animals and how many show plants.
• explain how the names of different birds, plants, or other familiar things might be used to represent sounds.
Step 3: Discuss with the class how many of the letters in our alphabet sound like the names of persons, places, or things (i.e., B = bee, C = sea, I = eye, and so on). Then create an alternative alphabet using a bee to stand for B (and so on), and count up the number letters that name plants, animals, and other things. Compare the results to the Amenemhet inscription.
Goals
This activity meets Illinois State Goal 6: Demonstrate and apply a knowledge and sense of numbers, including basic arithmetic operations, number patterns, ratios, and proportions.
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