IN THE CLASSROOM: Being Egyptian gods and kings

For a few seconds Tuesday at Eastbluff Elementary School, Adam Young got to rule the universe.

The sixth-grader was among the students in Katy Weiss’ class participating in Walk Through the Ancient Worlds, a program put on by California Weekly Explorer that covers the ancient civilizations of Rome, Greece and Egypt. Each student got to pick a historical character to play — and Adam, feeling ambitious, opted to be Ra, the Egyptian sun god.

When it came Adam’s time to give his speech at the front of the class, a group of his friends knelt around him on the floor and kowtowed until he finished. Adam, 12, enjoyed his moment of adulation.

“It feels like you control everything,” he said.

Ra was among many characters covered in Walk Through the Ancient Worlds, a presentation that capped the students’ unit on ancient history. In the Eastbluff library on Tuesday afternoon, presenter Jason Hammond gave a whirlwind tour of a thousand or so years while students, who came in costume, portrayed characters and offered definitions of vocabulary words.

California Weekly Explorer puts on a number of “Walks” for elementary school students, with units on the American Revolution, California and westward expansion. On Tuesday, Weiss’ class split into three teams — Romans, Greeks and Egyptians — who competed to score the most points. The Greeks, most of whom wore togas and wreaths in the style of classic philosophers, ended up beating their more militaristic rivals. Still, each group gave it their all. Nick Koch, 12, put on an elaborate costume to portray the Egyptian king Osiris, painting his face green and attaching a beard to his chin in the form of a blackened toilet paper roll.

Hammond kept the show as interactive as possible, at one point having a mummification contest in which each group wrapped a student head to toe in toilet paper — followed by a second contest, with the mummies competing to see who could tear off their bandages most quickly.

Brendan Fisher, 11, said the Walks made studying history more memorable.

“It’s more interactive, and most of the time, the guys who do it are pretty funny,” he said.