Egypt Unit Study - Books and Videos

This is a summary of books and videos used to study Ancient Egypt. Be sure to browse the list as only some were mentioned in earlier posts.

Books

My 13 year old loves the Royal Diary series of books. Both my 8 year old and I enjoyed reading Cleopatra VII: Daughter of the Nile, Egypt, 57 B.C. (8.2.1999) together. The story begins just before Cleopatra and her father were exiled to Rome. Told in narrative, we learned much about Cleopatra and life during her time by reading this historical fiction book.

The Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt jumps between how certain artifacts were discovered in Egypt and their significance to Ancient Egyptian history. All the while focusing on the lives of several great pharaohs. Hatshepsut, the first great woman known to history, her successor, Thutmose III, the great conqueror, and his son Ahmenhotep IV, the sun pharaoh, are described in great detail.

Tales of Ancient Egypt (Puffin Classics) is a chapter book for upper elementary children and older, which focus on the Gods and pharaohs of Ancient Egypt.

The Cat of Bubastes: A Tale of Ancient Egypt is a historical fiction book for junior high aged children and older, set in the time of Thutmose III.

Seeker of Knowledge: The Man Who Deciphered Egyptian Hieroglyphs is a picture book perfect for small learners. It describes how the determination of a small boy led to his being the one to crack the code of hieroglyphs as an adult.

Weighing the heart against the feather of truth is the method used to determine who was telling the truth in The Winged Cat by Deborah Nourse Latimore. The illustrations in this book contain hieroglyphs and art in the traditional Egyptian style.

Punt (modern day Somalia) was a distant land the Ancient Egyptians traveled to for trade, much like Ancient China was a mystery to the Europeans. The Shipwrecked Sailor: An Egyptian Tale with Hieroglyphs based on 1800 BC hieroglyphs, describes a journey to Punt that involves shipwreck, princes and interesting foods.

Ms. Frizzle's Adventures: Ancient Egypt gives kids a good introduction to the customs of Ancient Egypt.

The Egyptian Cinderella- Rodophis was a slave girl stolen from Greece and brought to Egypt. Being a slave, her life was actually better than the lives of the servants. Very loosely based on a true story, Rodophis grew up to marry one of the pharaohs of Ancient Egypt.

Pepi and the Secret Names: Help Pepi Crack the Hieroglyphic Code introduces children to the Egyptian philosophy of the afterlife, tomb building and hieroglyphics through a fun story. This book is good for younger children. (K-3)

Videos

Great Pharaohs of Egypt - is a four part series of videos which tells the stories of many significant pharaohs.

The Great Pharaohs of Egypt - Vol 1

(Nahmar, Djoser, Sneffru, Giza Pyramid Builders)

The Great Pharaohs of Egypt - Vol 2

(End of Pyramid Builders, Middle Kingdom, Tutmose, Hatshepsut)

The Great Pharaohs of Egypt - Vol 3

(Akhenaten)

The Great Pharaohs of Egypt - Vol 4

(Ramses to Cleopatra)

Egypt- Deities and Demons
This video describes many of the Egyptian Gods and Goddesses as well as their significance.

Egypt - Deities and Demons

Egypt Book of the Dead
The Egyptian Book of the Dead has a lot in common with the Bible. They are both religious texts which guide the reader to a happy afterlife. In addition to explaining the significance of the Book of the Dead, this video tells how one copy was found and preserved in the British Museum during the 1800's.

 Egypt Book of the Dead Part One

Engineering an Empire - is a video series which details great engineering accomplishments of several different historical empires. The Egypt episode describes how pyramids, obelisks and temples were constructed.

Engineering an Empire - Egypt

Hidden Secrets of the Great Pyramid - Revealed - In the video a new revolutionary theory for the construction technique of the Great Pyramid at Giza is described in detail. 

Secrets of the Great Pyramid - Revealed

 
For projects associated with our unit study please visit our History Page.


Check out these great blogs full of educational activity ideas.

Ancient Egyptian Pharaohs - Necklaces

Ancient Egypt Unit Study

Lesson 6: My daughter made an Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh necklace.

The Ancient Egyptians wore make-up, jewelry, and had their own unique fashion. Just like modern day people associate the land people come from with their clothing, make-up and jewelry, so did the Ancient Egyptians. During the time of Pharaoh Thutmose III, the Egyptian army was involved in conquering foreign lands such as Nubia, Syria, and Persia. After conquering new territory valuables, livestock and slaves were brought back to Egypt, so the people were used to seeing foreigners. In addition, traders from foreign lands could be found in Ancient Egypt.

Pharaohs

From the first pyramid builders, to the temple builders, conquerors, children and women, there were many interesting pharaohs of Ancient Egypt. No Ancient Egyptian Unit study is complete without learning about a few of the great pharaohs. Djoser, Khufu, Amenhotep I, Hatshepsut, Thutmose III, Akhnaten, Tutankamen, and Ramses II are great pharaohs to start with. The following resources do a good job of highlighting significant pharaohs.

The Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt is a chapter books suitable for ages 8 and up.


Great Pharaohs of Egypt - is a four part series of videos which tells the stories of many significant pharaohs.

 The Great Pharaohs of Egypt - Vol 1

(Nahmar, Djoser, Sneffru, Giza Pyramid Builders)

The Great Pharaohs of Egypt - Vol 2

(End of Pyramid Builders, Middle Kingdom, Tutmose, Hatshepsut)

The Great Pharaohs of Egypt - Vol 3

(Akhenaten)

The Great Pharaohs of Egypt - Vol 4

(Ramses to Cleopatra)

Pharaoh Necklace

From Pharaohs to the poor, all Ancient Egyptians wore jewelry. A person's wealth determined the jewelry material which ranged from stone and metal to seashells. My daughter's Ancient Egyptian necklace was constructed from plastic beads and embroidery floss.

Using the procedure detailed in this beaded headdress post, beads were strung together in a geometric pattern around an initial blue bead ring.

Check out these great blogs full of educational activity ideas.

Ancient Egyptian Gods and Amulets

Ancient Egyptian Unit Study

Lesson 5: We made amulets.

Osiris and Isis were brother/sister and husband/wife chief gods of Egypt. Osiris was bluish in color as he was the god of the dead. After people died they came to Osiris who ruled the underworld. Isis, his wife a was protector goddess and associated with fertility. The Ancient Egyptians worshiped many gods. During different historical periods, some gods took on a greater significance than others. Horus, the hawk headed god was the god of the living and often associated with pharaohs. Aten, the only god not portrayed as a human/animal creature, was a round image of the sun.

The people of Egypt built temples for their gods much like westerners build churches. Christians often wear crosses as jewelry. The crosses serve as a constant reminder of beliefs and protection. The Ancient Egyptians wore amulets as jewelry as a way of being closer to their gods. Just like Christians are often buried with crosses, Ancient Egyptians were buried with amulets. The Eye of Horus amulet was commonly wrapped inside the linen of mummies to bring protection to the deceased.


Tales of Ancient Egypt (Puffin Classics) is a chapter book for upper elementary children and older, which focus on the Gods and pharaohs of Ancient Egypt. Since there are numerous Egyptian Gods, this British Museum website helps to keep them straight. It contains pictures of several gods with short descriptions of their typical appearance and function.

Egypt- Deities and Demons
This video describes many of the Egyptian Gods and Goddesses as well as their significance.

 Egypt - Deities and Demons

When studying the gods and goddesses of Ancient Egypt, my daughter made a few amulets.

Ancient Egyptian Amulets

Ancient Egyptian amulets were constructed from precious metals or stone. Our amulets were constructed using Crayola Model Magic.

This amulet was a symbol of life.

Eye of Horus Amulet

Horus was the son of Isis who fought Seth to defend his father's honor. During the battle, he lost an eye. Since Horus was the god of life, this amulet symbolized Horus's lost eye and protected the owner.

Scarab Beetle

The scarab beetle was a symbol of renewal. Each day the sun would be reborn and sail across the sky and each day scarab beetles would emerge seemingly from nowhere. Therefore, they became a symbol of rebirth.

My daughter loves hedgehogs which weren't a very common amulet, but were symbols of baldness in Ancient Egypt.

To see our other History Activities, please visit our history page.




Check out these great blogs full of educational activity ideas.

Egyptian Middle and New Kingdom - Sculpture Activity

Ancient Egypt Unit Study

Lesson 4: My daughter created an Ancient Egyptian sculpture.

During the Middle and New Kingdom periods of Ancient Egyptian history, temple building and sculpture flourished. Pharaohs such as Thutmose III conquered foreign lands including Nubia, Palestine and Persia. Demanding annual tribute from those conquered raised the standard of living for Egyptians. As a result, there was a seemingly unending supply of wealth and resources available for the pharaohs. Much of the resources were used to construct temples full of art and sculpture. 

Like Ancient Egyptian art, Ancient Egyptian sculpture was created according to a strict set of rules.

• People were depicted as youthful.
• Men stood with their left foot forward and their arms by their sides.
• People were seated on thrones with their hands on their knees.

We continued reading the simple book Ancient Egyptian Art (Art In History) to create an Egyptian sculpture as it covers many basic ideas displayed in Egyptian art.

Crayola Model Magic was used to create the sculpture. It's a soft, modeling material, that is light, air drys, brightly colored, and feels a lot like foam.

This seated pharaoh has dark hair because the Egyptian people wore wigs to protect their heads from the sun, red skin because men were typically depicted with reddish skin, a bright necklace typical of those worn by pharaohs, and a skirt because Egyptians typically work light-weight white linen skirts. Finally, he is seated on the throne with his hands on knees because that is one of the basic accepted poses for Ancient Egyptian sculpture.

Please visit Highhill Education again next week for more on our Ancient Egypt Unit Study. For past posts, please visit our history page.

Check out these great blogs full of educational activity ideas.

Old Kingdom of Ancient Egypt Study and Activities

Ancient Egypt Unit Study

Lesson 3: Canopic Jars - My daughter made a paper mache canopic jar and my son built a pyramid building tool.

Mummies were made throughout the entire history of Egypt, but pyramids were only built during the Old Kingdom and Middle Kingdoms. Pyramids were built to house the mummy of the pharaoh as well as the items he would need during the afterlife. Before pharaohs began building pyramids, they were buried in mastaba tombs which were much smaller versions of pyramids. Unfortunately, pyramids were magnets for robbers seeking the wealth of objects the pharaoh was planning to use in his afterlife. Therefore, in later times pyramid building went out of style and pharaohs were buried in secret tombs.

Like the pharaohs, royal and common Egyptians believed they would need their bodies in the afterlife. During the Old Kingdom period, very few people could afford the expense of mummification. However, as Egypt prospered into the Middle Kingdom period, the wealthy became able to afford mummification. During the New Kingdom period of Egyptian history, even the poor could afford some level of mummification.

In addition to people, Egyptians mummified animals. For example, the crocodile was a symbol of the Nile river. People whose life depended upon the river may have chosen to worship the crocodile god which mummified crocodiles for religious ceremony. Throughout the course of Egyptian history animal mummification became so popular that it was big business. Since it was big business, there were incidences of corruption. I was surprised to learn about ibis birds and sticks being mummified to look like hawks in the video Egypt - Deities and Demons.

Pyramid Videos

Engineering an Empire - is a video series which details great engineering accomplishments of several different historical empires. The Egypt episode describes how pyramids, obelisks and temples were constructed.

Engineering an Empire - Egypt

Hidden Secrets of the Great Pyramid - Revealed - In the video a new revolutionary theory for the construction technique of the Great Pyramid at Giza is described in detail.

 Secrets of the Great Pyramid - Revealed

Gravity Lifting System

The main theory for building the Great Pyramid at Giza in the video Secrets of the Great Pyramid Revealed, suggests a pulley gravity based system was likely installed in the interior of the pyramid. Large stone blocks could have been lifted by attaching a counterweight. The counterweight may have been a container which workers could have filled with stones of lesser weight until the weight was sufficient to lift the pyramid block.

The counterweight system inside the pyramid likely ran on a track, where as ours was a hanging system. Nonetheless, the concept is the same.

Two objects are attached with a string or rope around a pulley or transition point at the top with little friction. When one object outweighs the other object, the heavier object will travel down and the lighter object will be lifted.

Canopic Jars

Canopic Jars were used to store organs during the mummification process in Ancient Egypt. The tops of the jars changed throughout time, but in later years they often contained an animal head. The book Ancient Egyptian Art (Art In History) briefly explained canopic jars. After reading a portion of the art book, my crafty seven year old began flipping through Crafts From The Past: The Egyptians and decided to make a paper mache canopic jar.

She began with a stout cardboard tube and stuffed a newspaper ball into the top. Next she taped the newspaper in place and added cardboard ears.

Well, she lost interest in this project and never finished...... but that's alright with me. She has done plenty of paper mache in the past, and now she knows about canopic jars.



Check out these great blogs full of educational activity ideas.

Ancient Egyptian Map and Timeline

Ancient Egypt Unit Study

Lesson 2: We made an Ancient Egyptian map and timeline.

When studying history it's often difficult for children to comprehend when an event actually occurred. Therefore, creating a detailed timeline which includes events of today as well as past events can be very helpful. We have a large timeline which is located in our kitchen, but sometimes create additional smaller timelines when studying a topic in detail.

Timeline

Ancient Egyptian History can be divided into a few major historical time periods:

5500 BC - 2950 BC - PreDynastic Period
2950 BC - 2649 BC - Early Dynastic
2649 BC - 2125 BC - Old Kingdom
2050 BC - 2000 BC - Golden Age
1975 BC - 1539 BC - Middle Kingdom
1539 BC - 1075 BC - New Kingdom
1075 BC - 715 BC - Third Intermediate Period
715 BC - 322 BC - Late Period
322 BC - Greek and Roman Period

Our Egyptian timeline was very simple and sketched onto a single sheet of paper with colored sections to divide the major periods. As we read and learned about Egypt, events and pharaohs were added to the timeline.

Pyramid building took place during the Old Kingdom and Middle Kingdom, and temple building took place during the Middle and New Kingdoms. Several interesting pharaohs lived during the New Kingdom including Thutmose I, Thutmose III, Hatshepsut, Akhenaton and Tutankhamen. Cleopatra, the last pharaoh, lived during the Greek and Roman period.

Map

The map was created by sketching the shape of the current country of Egypt onto a sheet of foam board.

Once the outline and Nile river was drawn in pencil, it was traced with permanent marker.

Next the names of a few significant cities and monuments were placed on the map:

Lower Egypt
Upper Egypt
Nubia
Giza
Memphis
Thebes
Valley of the Kings

Additional monuments and cities were added during the course of reading.




Check out these great blogs full of educational activity ideas.

Ancient Egyptian Art

Egypt Unit Study

Lesson 1: My daughter created Ancient Egyptian Art.

The other day during lunch my seven year old daughter announced she wanted to study Egypt. I couldn't have been more excited by her statement. For several months we have been working towards a less structured, more interest based education routine. We literally dove right in.

Planning for the 2013/14 school year I prepared a unit study on Egypt. Well we ended up studying the Middle Ages and the Renaissance instead. Therefore, when my daughter showed her interest in Egypt, I knew just where to begin. She loves art, design and fashion, and has seen pictures of elaborate Egyptian necklaces.

Ancient Egyptian Art (Art In History) was the perfect book for her introduction to Egypt. It is short, contains lots of pictures, and explains some of the techniques used by the Egyptians. We read about half of the book when she wanted to stop to try a few of the techniques for herself.

People in Egyptian art were drawn according to a very strict set of rules:
The heads always faced the side.
The eye was drawn from the front.
The chest was drawn from the front.
The arms and legs were drawn from the side.
Women were colored with lighter shades of paint than men. Usually women were yellowish and men had reddish skin.

She began by making a few sketches of people.

Next she gathered her paints. Although she didn't try grinding them from rocks, she was careful to select colors used in Egyptian paintings.

Please visit Highhill Education again next week to see more of our Ancient Egypt study.




Check out these great blogs full of educational activity ideas.

* I did not receive any compensation for this recommendation. I'm just a homeschooling mom who has found many products that I like. If you're interested in the products I recommend on this blog I want to make it easy for you to find them. 
** I am an Amazon associate and receive a small portion of the sales on orders made after clicking in from this site, which I promptly spend on homeschooling books and supplies for my children.