Egypt

Welcome to this year’s AMAZING RACE at San Jose Episcopal Day School.
All grades will be traveling to the country of Egypt and compete in activities that will challenge their knowledge of Egypt. Each class is considered one team, competing against the teams of their grade level. Start creating team spirit by deciding on a name for your team, that shows their knowledge of Egypt. Please submit your team name to Mrs. Tolisano as soon as possible.

The Amazing Race will take place over a period of 5 weeks, with the results of each week’s challenge having to be completed AND reported on Friday of that week. Each week’s current winner will be determined by tallying up points according to the challenge rubrics. Additional points might be awarded for an article written and submitted by a team member reporting on the competition and chosen to be published for a global audience on the Egypt Blog.

Deadlines for completing the challenge, submitting results and article to be considered for publication are:

1. Challenge I: Friday, November 2, 2007
2. Challenge II: Friday, November 9, 2007
3. Challenge III: Friday, November 16, 2007
4. Challenge IV: Friday, November 30, 2007
5. Challenge V: Friday, December 7, 2007

Teams

Challenge I: Letter Puzzle
Directions: Using the Egypt blog students will answer questions. When the answers to the questions are obtained, the first letter of each answer will be used in a letter puzzle to discover a word that relates to Egypt. Students should put their answers on the Student Page which is provided. This task may be given as a homework assignment or done in school. If done in school students should be given a time limit, determined by the teachers, to find the answers and unscramble the letters to find the secret word.
Teachers will need to coordinate on whether to assign as homework or do in school. All classes should use the same method. One point will be awarded for each student that answers the questions and finds the secret word. The class with the highest percentage of students completing the task will be declared the winning class for each grade for this challenge.

Challenge II: Relay Races

Pre-K & Kindergarten: Camel Relay Race

A horse or cat walks by moving one front foot forward, after which the opposite hind leg moves. For the next step, the other front foot moves, followed by the opposite hind leg. A camel walks by moving a hind leg first, then moving the front leg on the same side.
Show your students a short video clip where they can see a camel walk. Have each student practice walking like a camel. Mark five meters in the hallway outside your classroom and have each student “race” like a camel. Make sure you emphasize the way a camel walks, not necessarily the speed. Pick four final
competitors that raced strongly. Line two up on each end of your marked “race track” and time the final relay race. Please submit your final race time.

Grades 1-6:

You will be supplied with a laundry basket with clothing. Show your class photos from an Egyptian market, depicting many women and girls carrying their loads on their head. You will allow each member of the team to practice a few moments to carry the basket on their head. Once everyone is ready for the elimination round, you will mark 10 meters in the hallway, playground, gym or P.E. field and time each student carrying the basket on their head. If the basket falls the student is eliminated. The fastest 4 students will compete in the final challenge. Line these students on each end of the marked 10 meter (two on each side) and start timing.
When a student looses the basket, he/she will have to return to the starting mark. Once the student carries the basket successfully for his leg, he hands it over to the next student. Record the final time it took the relay team to complete all four legs of the race.

Challenge III: Identify Sounds and Images from Egypt

You will show five different sound files and close-ups of six photographs that you are to play and show to your class. Please show them on your computer through the TV screen. Each student will SILENTLY write down what he/she thinks these sounds and images represent on the student paper. Points will be given to each accurate answer.
Please tally up the points and submit final tally to Mrs. Tolisano or Mrs. Menger to determine the challenge winner.
Challenge IV: Hieroglyphs & Mummy Wrap

Your class will be given three toilet paper rolls. The task is to wrap your tallest student (present that day) COMPLETELY in toilet paper. Three students will be handed the toilet paper rolls and start to wrap as fast as they can the other student as soon as the timing starts. After 20 seconds three new students will take over the wrapping and so on. Stop timing as soon as the ENTIRE body is wrapped, including the face and head. Check that no body part or clothing is showing through the wrap. The winner of this challenge will be determined by the fastest time it took the team to wrap their “Mummy”.

Challenge V: Cultural Observations

Pre-K- Kindergarten:

Classes will be provided with pictures taken during Mrs. Menger and Mrs.Tolisano’s travels to Egypt. Using the pictures the students will create a story. All students should contribute and each teacher will record the story. Teachers will be given a Power Point with pictures and the class story may be recorded directly
into the Power Point.
1-3 Grade:

>Visitors to other countries often notice cultural differences and how things are done differently in other countries. When Mrs. Menger and Mrs. Tolisano traveled to Egypt they noted many cultural differences. For example, many of the men wore what appeared to be long dresses, known as galabiyas. This is very different than western dress. For this challenge students will be shown pictures of Egypt, taken during Mrs. Menger’s and Mrs. Tolisano’s travels and students should note cultural differences or things that look or are done differently than in America.

The teacher will keep a master list of the observations. The class with the most entries will be the winner for that grade for this competition.

4-6th Grade:

Visitors to other countries often notice cultural differences and how things are done differently in other countries. When Mrs. Menger and Mrs. Tolisano traveled to Egypt they noted many cultural differences. One difference they observed was that most Egyptians were bi‐lingual, some even being tri‐lingual.
Students are taught English all the way through school and end up being fluent speakers of English. In contrast, it is rare for a person in the U.S. to speak more than one language, and only English is taught all the way through school.
This Amazing Race challenge will involve cultural differences. Based on information found in the blog students will make a list of cultural differences an Egyptian visiting the U.S. might observe. They must be supported from information from the blog or if from another source that source must be noted.
Reliable sources other than the blog are acceptable, for example, if a student had traveled to Egypt, etc.
Each student will be given a Student Page to complete. The student must write the cultural difference an Egyptian visiting the U.S. might see, the source, and support for why the student thinks an Egyptian might make the observation.

One point will be awarded for each observation that is reasonable, lists the source, and has supporting documentation.