We just read about Moses. The story begins with this mother of Ancient Israel carefully weaving a basket in which she will place her three month old son. The tale is very poignantly retold in the River Lullaby from "Prince of Egypt", the movie by Dreamworks.
Now, I was caught by the idea of this basket, and wondered if we could create a mini basket. I found some beautiful handwoven baskets while researching for our study of Ancient Africa. I thought we should give it a try. But, it is best to begin with a base of light card-stock for your beginning weavers.
We had just read the introduction to Moses in Chapter 14 of "Story of the World" and I wanted to try an oval basket, like we imagined the basket for Baby Moses might have looked. I played around with the shapes for a bit until I landed on this one, which seemed to work well for me.
The reeds in the photo are cattail leaves. I only needed two for this small basket.
I taped one end of a reed to a card-stock arm and began weaving in and out around the arms, beginning at the base of our basket.
When I came to the end of my reed, I grabbed the next one and taped the last one to the card-stock. I think a good staple might work even better than tape.
When I got to within a half inch or so of the ends of the card-stock arms, I folded over the tops and taped them to the card-stock lower down. Again, I think a staple might work even better.
Of course, we had to try out this basket with a figure that might work as a Moses surrogate. And, hey, she fits in there just fine! This little basket has been holding up much better than I expected considering we used tape to secure its cardboard. It's a sturdy little item and makes its way between my son's room and my daughter's and has been used for all sorts of things already. Next time, I might attempt to make one entirely out of cattail leaves!
The above lesson is now available as a FREE DOWNLOAD
I want to mention this wonderful Game Pack from Belinda over at Whispering Waters. Her Game Pack is filled with cards showcasing familiar moments from Ancient Times in the Bible.
This product is in her store right here, and the wonderful thing is that she lists a whole bunch of game ideas as ways to utilize these awesome cards. She also includes this excellent reading list of fictional stories that would be great read-alouds for kids covering Ancient Civilizations. You will definitely want to check this product out!
We used it for Hammurabi's Code, but this would also work EXCELLENT for two Ten Commandment tablets, if you plan on having your students write out some or all of the Ten Commandments. And since, that is also covered in this chapter, I wanted to be sure and mention it so you can download it and use it. :)
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