Hello friends!
Today, I wanted to share what we used for our Egypt unit study. My kids are currently 7 and 5 and this was the perfect gentle introduction into ancient Egypt. I hope that you gain some ideas for your own study!
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Books We Loved
Books are the backbone for all the history topics that we cover. Truly, you could just read books and be all set! I found these these two to be the most intriguing and helpful as a guide:
- We’re Sailing Down the Nile River: A Journey Through Egypt
- National Geographic Kids: Everything Ancient Egypt
My oldest especially loved We’re Sailing Down the Nile River because each page referenced a god or goddess and she was particularly interested in them. The back of the book contains a glossary with all the details and then some. It was our favorite book of the bunch!
Others that we read or referenced:
- National Geographic Kids: Cleopatra
- Magic Tree House: Mummies in the Morning
- Magic Tree House: Mummies and Pyramids
- National Geographic Kids: Pyramids
- Skippyjon Jones in Mummy Trouble
- The Egyptian Cinderella (a fun twist on the fairytale)
To save money, we always grab our books from the library.
Topics We Covered
I wanted a general outline of what we’d be talking about, so I focused on these main areas:
- Daily life in ancient Egypt (hierarchy/jobs/etc.)
- Pharaohs/gods/goddesses
- The Nile river
- Mummies
- Cats (a sacred animal)
- Other animals of Ancient Egypt (crocodiles, scarab beetle, falcons, camels, etc.)
- Hieroglyphics
I used the above reference books to read from on these topics. While I read, I would have them listen while they colored printables or cut-and-paste crafts.
Fun Activities
This is where things really come to life. The activities are the most exciting part for kids in elementary and these were just simple enough for me, as well!
- Learn to draw pyramids (I had my oldest include this in her copywork journal with a quick sentence about pyramids.
- Mummify an apple
- Make a sacred cat statue
- Paper plate Egyptian necklace
- Mummify their stuffed animals (two kitties, of course) with toilet paper and decorate a tomb (an empty tissue box). This was their favorite.
- Pharaoh art – found this idea from Little School of Smith’s unit study and it is such a great keepsake
- Crack the code hieroglyphic activity
Media
I love utilizing YouTube for short videos that keep their attention. Here are a few we watched:
- Ancient Egypt for Kids (Homeschool Pop)
- Exploring Ancient Egypt (Free School)
- Ancient Egypt 101 (National Geographic)
We also listened to Ancient Egyptian music while we crafted, which set the ambiance for the morning. We all agreed it was also very relaxing!
So there you have it – just a few ideas that made our unit study come to life while being just enough for their ages. It was such a fun unit for all of us, myself included. I look forward to diving deeper in ancient Egypt again as they get older… it is so fascinating.
(Honestly, I love that I get another chance to dive deep into these topics, too! LOL)
I hope that this was helpful. Have a wonderful day, friend. x
