Ancient Egypt for Teachers - Free Use Classroom Activities and Projects Illustration

Ancient Egypt for Teachers
Classroom Activities and Projects

Free use classroom activities and projects for ancient Egypt: New Deities, Egyptian Fairy Tales, A Mock Bazaar, Stump the Audience, Egypt Bingo, Decorative Decodes, How to Live Forever (the ancient Egyptian mummy way), The King Tut News Hour, Deep in the Tomb of Egypt, and more. We teach middle school (grades 6-8), but these activities can be adjusted for any grade.

New Deities: Ask the class to come up with a list of some of the animals that live in your state. Record them on the chalkboard. Then have the kids create new gods and goddesses using the heads of your local animals. Brainstorm a list of topics that their deities can "stand for," such as friendship, schools, fun, etc. Challenge them to make their animal choices match the attribute they represent: for example, an owl-headed god of schools (wise as an owl), a dog-headed god of friendship (man's best friend), a bee-headed god of work (busy as a bee). (Donn)

Unification of Upper and Lower Egypt: Explain how Narmer unified Egypt in 3100 BC, and that the double crown was created by combining the white crown of Upper Egypt with the red crown of Lower Egypt. Then, have the children create new symbols for a modern unification by combining the logos of competitors. To get them thinking, ask what the logo could be if Coke and Pepsi were united. Or MCI and AT&T, or Apple and Microsoft, or the USA and Canada, etc. Have magazines available for kids to reference corporate logos and an encyclopedia for flags of countries. Submitted by: Kevin Fleury; New Hampshire; USA

Ancient Egyptian Fairy Tales: Have the students rewrite their favorite fairy tale. Change the setting, and items to ancient Egyptian times. Instead of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves...I got a tale called, "Nefertiti and the Seven Tomb Robbers." There are some great tales to be changed, rewritten, and illustrated. Students learn many concepts from this unit. Submitted by: Jeanie Saiger; Grand Forks, North Dakota; USA

Barter: Have a mock bazaar by getting a 5 lb. candy bag, and pass it out (give some kids more than others... "Gee, this was a bad year for our Peanut Butter Cup crops!" Throw in other items to barter, such as pencils, stickers. The Egyptians ranked the value of their wares according to the "deben," a standard sized piece of copper. A goat may have been worth 1 deben, and a bed 2.5 deben. A reasonable trade would be 2 or 3 goats for one bed. Prepare for the activity by assigning each item a deben value. Cherry lollipops might be 6 deben, small lemon flavored candies 1 deben. Have each child take inventory prior to trading to calculate the total value of their starting worth. Let them trade. Have the kids recalculate. My kids were very particular about making sure they were getting their "deben worth"! Submitted by: The Chihuahua Pharaohs

Mummies! Or How to Live Forever! (Donn)

Decorative Decodes (Be an Archaeologist): Have students write (with black permanent marker) their full names in any order (middle, last, then first - or however) on a sheet of white typing paper using hieroglyphic symbols. When finished, stain the papers in tea water and mount them on black construction paper. Give the kids the next week to decode all the papers and figure out whose was whose. Submitted by Barbara D. Martin; California, USA

Daily Life:  Group Activity, Stump the Audience, 1-2 class periods (Donn)

Ancient Egypt Daily Life: Have each student write their own story about a day in Ancient Egypt. Their story must be at least 5 paragraphs long. They will write as if they were telling about their own life in Egypt over the course of one day. They can not be the pharaoh, a king or queen, or a god. They can be a priest, worker, soldier, merchant, slave, or visitor. They can work alone or in small groups. When working in groups, each student must turn in their own original work, but students stories must mesh and intertwine. When working in groups, students are encouraged to know each in ancient times. Information on ancient Egypt daily life may be found here: Daily Life Ancient Egypt.

The King Tut News Hour - All the latest from Tut's Tomb, reporter on site (creating news headlines), Group activity. Give each group a quick background of their newspaper, magazine, or radio show. For example, (1) Your newspaper has lost circulation. You need to increase readership or go out of business. (2) You have a radio show and a reputation for stretching the truth. (3) And so on. Only the group sees their background. After each group creates a headline and possibly a short news story, have the rest of the class give their opinion on the purpose and accuracy of the "news" they just heard. After a quick discussion, the group reads their assigned background to the class. The teacher asks: Did their headline match their instructions? Then ask for a show of hands, was this report accurate? Why or why not.

Review Activity, Small Groups: Deep in the Tombs of Egypt: Sing along and create verses of your own. Can be used as a review activity working in small groups. (Donn)

Review Game: Create a Game of Ancient Egypt Bingo, with Bingo card  (Donn)

Online Game Day: Ancient Egypt - Games and Interactive Learning Sites for Kids - We create a scavenger hunt sheet of things for kids to find in the sites listed on their exploration sheet. The kids have to site the source for each scavenger find for verification. (Donn)

More ideas for Ancient Egypt Submitted by Barbara D. Martin; California, USA

  1. Archeology--Use magazines to look up places around the world where archeologists are at work today. Make a large world map to show findings.

  2. The Egyptians left out most vowels. Write a letter to a friend using no vowels and see if they can fill in the blanks.

  3. Debate ethics of taking things from a tomb for museums.

  4. Write a want ad for pyramid workers.

  5. Make a clay pyramid using 2 cups each salt and flour, 1 1/2 cups water. Cover with sandpaper to give realistic look.

  6. Compare the height of some of the worlds highest structures.

  7. Pretend you are working on a pyramid. Write a letter home to your family describing your day, thoughts and feelings.

  8. Design a pyramid you think would be safe from grave robbers.

  9. Rosetta Stone--Make your own from plaster of Paris, carving it when dry with heavy needle or nail.

  10. Find pieces of literature you think should be left as examples like the Rosetta Stone.

  11. Sphinx--write a story telling what happened to the end of his nose. Read out loud and vote on the best story.

  12. Tombs--list things you would want in your tomb.

  13. What books do you think should be left behind for future generations?

  14. Workers--compare ancient Egyptian and modern day.

Choose Your Own Adventure from over 70 different classroom activities and possible assignments (Mr. Roughton)

Puzzle Creator - Word search, Criss Cross, Memory Matching (found online)

Concluding Activity for Ancient Egypt: Pharaoh's Fun House (Donn)

Ask Mr. Donn: Interactive Online Quiz for review about Ancient Egypt (with answers)

See Also: Lesson Plans and Activities - Many have activities