Welcome to our “Ancient Egypt Week” – an at home camp filled with days of relaxed learning and fun activities all themed to awesome Ancient Egypt! For this day, we turned our attention to the very cool Hieroglyphics (and what they wrote on – Papyrus)! Read on to check out a fun filled day of learning, reading, crafts, and activities all on the amazing writing system of the Ancient Egyptians!
A TYPICAL DAY
All kids are different and you can definitely vary your day with whatever works for you 🙂 Our relaxed & learning fun day kicks off with an introduction to the day’s theme. Then, we move onto videos and themed activities (reading, writing – or story telling – time, crafts, food crafts/snacks, and games or experiments). Feel free to pick and choose whatever works for you 🙂
INTRO
While your little one may be familiar with pyramids and mummies, they may not have had as much experience with hieroglyphics (unless they’ve had a unit study). But, if they love writing, pictures, or decoding, they will LOVE learning about hieroglyphics. We also wanted to include a bit about what Ancient Egyptians wrote on (papyrus). These sites are great introductions with kid-friendly facts, images, and related content! They’re perfect for providing a brief intro for your little ones (or to gather up some knowledge as well!)!
- Cartouche by Wikipedia
- Fascinating Facts About Hieroglyphics by National Geographic Kids
- Ancient Egypt Hieroglyphics by Ducksters
- Ancient Egypt Hieroglyphic Examples and Alphabet by Ducksters
WHAT TO WATCH
We find that mixing in a short video themed to our day is a great way to add some learning fun! We try to pick informative videos OR mix in a cartoon favorite (where they don’t even realize they’re learning). Below are some of the videos we picked from for the day:
*It’s worth noting, a study of Ancient Egypt almost always includes mention of mummies. If you’re little one is a bit squeamish, you may want to skip out on some or parts of the videos*
- AdaptedMind Social Studies – Ancient Egypt, Writing by AdaptedMind (4m)
- How Papyrus was Made | Ancient Egypt for Kids | Learning Made Fun by Mr. Bradley Learning Made Fun (5m)
- Egyptian Papyrus Making by TheBazaarEgypt (1m)
- Papyrus & Hieroglyphics | Ancient Egypt 2 | #69 LET’S GO LIVE with Maddie and Greg by Maddie Moate (37m)
FOOD CRAFTS / SNACKS
What’s more fun than taking a break and having a simple snack??? Including the snack in your theme of the day! We find that our kiddos are more than happy to eat the snacks they create especially when they can arrange them into fun shapes and scenes!
While we always try to pick a snack that is themed to the day, it was a bit difficult to find something specifically related to the Ancient Egypt Writing System. So, we went back to some of the typical foods that Ancient Egyptians ate: breads and garlic (and while we’re not sure if they actually ate garlic bread, we couldn’t pass the combination up :))
- Egyptian Food by History for Kids
- What Types of Vegetables Did the Ancient Egyptians Eat? by Classroom
READING
It’s no secret that reading is an important part of learning, which is why we pick out a handful of books that are fun and filled with some learning tidbits. For our older ones, we have them fill out some worksheets (or let them create some of their own comics) to describe what they read and/or learned! These are a few we picked from for the day:
- Ancient Egypt Book of Facts This one actually came in a Dig Kit that we used for a previous day – Dig & Discover Ancient Egypt Kit. It had a few pages of hieroglyphics as well as the alphabet!
- Hieroglyphics by Ancient Egypt for Kids. The webpage also has links at the bottom for further reading!
- The Many Uses of Papyrus by Ancient Egypt for Kids
WRITING & WRITING PROMPTS
Just like reading, writing is a great way to keep kids learning by both encouraging their creativity and thought process as well as helping them practice their motor skills and penmanship.
If you’ve got a little one, have them trace words related to the theme: HISTORY, ANCIENT, EGYPT, WRITING, HIEROGLYPHICS, PAPRYUS
If you’ve got older children, have them write a sentence or two up to a page or two (depending on their age). Encourage them to be creative AND give reasons for why they made certain choices. This was our writing prompt of the day (and we offered up some examples as well) but definitely pick something your kiddo might be interested in writing about!
- If you could create your own alphabet using only pictures, what would it look like? Create your alphabet and then draw out a few words 🙂
- Write about your favorite day using your own Hieroglyphics (just pictures)
- Pick an your favorite or inspiring, positive word or phrase and translate it into hieroglyphics
CREATE & CRAFT
If you’ve got a crafty little one, a simple craft is a great way to keep them interested in the topic. While their creative juices are flowing, you can also chat about what they’ve learned so far or ask them what else they’re excited about learning!
For our crafts of the day, we gave them a few options that would help them enhance their pretend play or add in some of what they learned:
- Make a Cartouche: Ancient Egypt Cartouche Lesson by Arty Factory
- Make Papyrus Paper: Making Papyrus Paper by Primary Topic Shop
- Draw on some store bought Egyptian Papyrus Paper
STEM & STEAM ACTIVITIES
While crafting and writing get their creativity and imagination flowing, we also like to add in an activity that gets them thinking along the lines of science, technology, engineering, or math! These engaging activities or experiments are a great way to keep them learning!
- Use a virtual translator: VE Hieroglyphic Translator by Virtual Egypt
- National Geographic – Explorer Academy: Hieroglyphics
- Create Your Own Code: Using the hieroglyphics alphabet, create a coded word or phrase and pass to a friend to decode 🙂
THANK YOU!!!
Thank you for checking out our at home learning fun article! If you enjoyed this post, please let us know what you think in the comments below and/or follow us on Pinterest
Also, if you haven’t already, check out some of our other Ancient Egypt Ideas or History Themed Weeks, as well as our DIY At Home Camps!
Happy Learning!
