Yash Verma, a 6th grader in Melissa Irons’ class at Park Elementary School, was dressed as King Tutankhamun (Tut) yesterday. He wore his Halloween costume, along headdress and eyeliner under his eyes, but not for the whole day.

Like his classmates, Yash participated in a display of their Egypt projects, which parents were invited to view in the school’s all purpose room.

“You made this day even better,” said 6th grade teacher Stephanie Fraser, to the parents who viewed exhibits and took photos and videos of the event that ended with a rap and dance about Ancient Egypt.

Verma’s project was on the Sphinx, which he had to do a report on, as well as make a display of what it looked like. He explained that the Sphinx’s face is believed to be the face of Pharaoh Khafra and that its nose was shot off by Muhammad Sa’im Al-Dahr, a Sufi Muslim, in 1378 C.E. Verma also said he would want to see Egypt because it’s a “cool monumental place.”

Another student, in Fraser’s class, Brody Wilson, made canopic jars, which he said the Egyptians put pharaoh’s intestines, lungs, livers and stomachs in to preserve them. Substituting for lungs in one of the jars were balloons. Wilson said he likes doing projects and making things with clay, which he made the canopic jars with. He also said he likes learning about the history of Ancient Egypt and the Egyptians, such as how they lived and dressed. Not all students went into such detail.

One of the students who waited to the last minute to do his project was Joshua Wallbridge, a student in Melissa Irons’ class. He made a step pyramid from insulation, which he said took about 20 minutes. The report took him an hour.

Students were assigned this project before they went on Christmas break. They had about three weeks, although some waited last minute while others spent hours working hard on it.

Learning about Ancient Egypt is part of the 6th grade curriculum at Park. To close out the classroom study students dressed up, made displays and did reports. There were seven topics to choose from including: canopic jars, step pyramids, The Great Pyramid of Giza, The Sphinx, obelisks or burial chambers. They each got a topic by raffle, so there weren’t too many of one thing being displayed.

As for transforming back into Park students, that happened shortly after 9 a.m. when they returned to class and put aside caps, gowns and Egyptian attire.