Category: ShapeShire Scholar

Egyptian Hieroglyphs

Hi! My name is Claire the Square and I am so excited to talk to you about shapes today! Do you know who else loved shapes? The Ancient Egyptians! They loved them so much they used them instead of letters!!

These Egyptian hieroglyphs were a way for the ancient Egyptians to write things down. They used pictures and symbols to represent words and ideas, kind of like a secret code.
They would put these pictures together to make sentences and stories. They would write them on walls, papyrus and stone tablets. Some pictures represented a sound or a syllable, and others represented a whole word.
They were used in ancient Egypt for more than 3,500 years, but it was difficult to read and write, so only special people like priests and scribes could do it.
I bet you could do it though – try to write your name!

Roman Numerals

Hey guys, Caroline the Line here! I was asked to explain what Roman numerals were, so here we go!
Roman numerals are a special way of writing numbers that people used a long time ago, in ancient Rome.

They use letters instead of numbers to show the value of something.

To write a number using Roman numerals, you put the letters together in a special way. You start with big numbers and make your way to the end. For example if we want to write the number 1125 we would do the following, each numeral added to the previous ones:
Start with M for 1000, add a C for 100, two Xs to make 20, and end with a V for 5:
1125 = 1000 + 100 + 20 + 5 = M + C + X + X + V = MCXXV
There’s one more trick to learn about Roman numerals – when a symbol of a smaller value appears before a symbol of greater value, it will be subtracted from it:
For Example: IV = V – I = 5 – 1 = 4.

ShapeShire Celebrates International Zebra Day – January 31

Hey guys, Caroline the Line here! I was just reading about Zebras and thought I’d share what I learned with you!

Zebras are beautiful animals that live in Africa. They are related to horses and donkeys, but they have one special feature that sets them apart: their stripes!
The stripes on a zebra’s coat are black and white, and no two zebras have the exact same pattern of stripes – like a fingerprint, each zebra’s stripe pattern is unique. Some zebras have wide stripes, while others have thin stripes.

Scientists are not sure why Zebras have stripes but have suggested and researched many potential reasons: the stripes allow zebras to blend in with its environment, to confuse predators, to help with individual recognition and social bonding, to control a zebra’s body temperature, and to deter biting flies.
It is essential to keep in mind that like many other wild animals, zebras are facing threats such as habitat loss and poaching, so it’s important that we take care of our planet and help protect these amazing creatures.