1.
Three helpers carried water jars up to the pyramid workers: Musa, Bilal, and Zayd. Together they carried 11 jars. Bilal carried 5 jars and Zayd carried 2. How many did Musa carry? Whose number was in the middle?
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Answer:
Did you know? The pyramid builders were paid workers, not slaves. Records show they were paid in bread, beer, and grain.
2.
A painted border in a tomb counts up in a pattern: 4, 8, 12, 16, ___, ___ . What are the next two numbers, and what is the rule?
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Answer:
Did you know? Egyptians wrote numbers as pictures. A coiled rope meant 100, a lotus flower meant 1,000, and a bent finger meant 10,000.
3.
Amina counted 9 carved scarab beetles on a wall. There were 3 more blue ones than green ones. How many were blue, and how many were green? (Hint: try pairs of numbers that add up to 9.)
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Answer:
Did you know? The scarab beetle rolls a ball of dung across the ground. Egyptians thought it looked like something rolling the sun across the sky, so it became a symbol of a new day.
4.
Four boats sailed down the Nile: the Falcon, the Lotus, the Ibis, and the Sun. The Falcon arrived 1st. The Lotus arrived last. The Ibis arrived ahead of the Sun. List all four boats in order from 1st to 4th.
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Answer:
Did you know? The Nile flows north, and the wind blows south. So boats could drift downstream one way and raise a sail to come back — a free ride both directions.
5.
Musa is making a necklace with one bead — red, blue, or gold — on one cord — leather or linen. How many different necklaces can he make? Try listing them all.
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Answer:
Did you know? Egyptians made the world's first man-made color, called Egyptian blue, by baking sand, copper, and lime together over 4,000 years ago.
1.
In a board game, a house square earns 5 points, a blank square earns 1 point, and a water square costs 2 points. Yusuf lands on 3 house squares, 2 blank squares, and 1 water square. Zaid lands on 1 house square, 7 blank squares, and 2 water squares. How many points does each boy have? Who has more, and by how many?
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Answer:
Did you know? Senet is one of the oldest board games we know of — Egyptians were playing it more than 5,000 years ago.
2.
Three workers — Yusuf, Idris, and Hamza — have three jobs at the site: scribe, stone-cutter, and water-carrier. Clue 1: Yusuf is not the scribe. Clue 2: Hamza is the water-carrier. Which job does each worker have?
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Answer:
Did you know? Only a small number of Egyptians could read and write. Becoming a scribe took years of school, and scribes did not have to pay taxes.
3.
A small step pyramid has 5 layers. The bottom layer uses 80 blocks, and each layer above it uses half as many blocks as the layer below. How many blocks are in the top layer? How many blocks are in the whole pyramid?
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Answer:
Did you know? The Great Pyramid at Giza used more than 2 million stone blocks, and most of them weigh more than a car.
4.
Two brothers copied hieroglyph symbols onto papyrus. Together they copied 26 symbols. Yusuf copied 6 more than Musa. How many symbols did each brother copy?
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Answer:
Did you know? Hieroglyphs went unread for about 1,400 years. The Rosetta Stone finally cracked them, because it carried the same message in three kinds of writing.
5.
A festival has 15 dancers split into equal groups of 5. How many groups are there? Inside one group, each dancer greets every other dancer exactly once. How many greetings happen in that group? (Hint: label them A, B, C, D, E and list the pairs.)
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Answer:
Did you know? Egypt's biggest festivals followed the Nile's yearly flood, which left behind dark, rich mud that made the farmland grow.
3rd Grade
1. Musa carried 4 jars; Musa is the middle.
11 total − 5 (Bilal) − 2 (Zayd) = 4 for Musa. In order: Zayd 2, Musa 4, Bilal 5 → Musa is in the middle.
2. 20 and 24. Rule: add 4 each time.
4, 8, 12, 16 each go up by 4. 16 + 4 = 20, 20 + 4 = 24.
3. 6 blue, 3 green.
The two numbers add to 9 and differ by 3. Guess & check: 6 + 3 = 9 and 6 − 3 = 3. So 6 blue, 3 green.
4. Falcon, Ibis, Sun, Lotus.
Falcon is 1st and Lotus is 4th. That leaves 2nd and 3rd for Ibis and Sun; Ibis is ahead, so Ibis 2nd, Sun 3rd. Order: Falcon, Ibis, Sun, Lotus.
5. 6 necklaces.
3 bead colors × 2 cords = 6. (red-leather, red-linen, blue-leather, blue-linen, gold-leather, gold-linen.)
4th Grade
1. Yusuf 15, Zaid 8. Yusuf has 7 more.
Yusuf: (3 × 5) + (2 × 1) − (1 × 2) = 15 + 2 − 2 = 15. Zaid: (1 × 5) + (7 × 1) − (2 × 2) = 5 + 7 − 4 = 8. 15 − 8 = 7.
2. Hamza = water-carrier, Yusuf = stone-cutter, Idris = scribe.
Hamza is the water-carrier (Clue 2). Yusuf is not the scribe (Clue 1) and the water job is taken, so Yusuf is the stone-cutter. That leaves scribe for Idris.
3. Top layer = 5 blocks; 155 blocks in all.
80 → 40 → 20 → 10 → 5. Total: 80 + 40 + 20 + 10 + 5 = 155.
4. Musa 10 symbols, Yusuf 16.
Take the 6 extra off first: 26 − 6 = 20, then 20 ÷ 2 = 10 for Musa. Yusuf = 10 + 6 = 16. Check: 10 + 16 = 26. ✓
5. 3 groups; 10 greetings per group.
15 ÷ 5 = 3 groups. In a group of 5 (A–E): AB, AC, AD, AE, BC, BD, BE, CD, CE, DE = 10 greetings.