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 their mythology! Read on to check out a fun filled day of learning, reading, crafts, and activities all on Ancient Egypt Mythology!
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
When most people think of ancient mythology, they usually Ancient Egypt doesn’t normally come up in the top 1 or 2. BUT, Ancient Egyptians had a very rich mythology and belief system. While one day is nowhere near enough to cover the breadth of their mythology, we at least wanted a day to touch on the topic.
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!)!
- The Ennead of Heliopolis in ancient Egypt by World History Edu
- 9 Ennead Gods in Egyptian Mythology: Who Were They? by MythNerd
And if you just want to have a bit of fun, this quiz will tell you which Ancient Egyptian God or Goddess you are 🙂
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*
- Ancient Egyptian Gods and Goddesses for Kids! by Twinkl Teaching Resources (7m)
- Ancient Egyptian Gods and Goddesses | Facts For Kids by KidsKonnect (6m)
- AdaptedMind Social Studies – Ancient Egypt, Mythology By AdaptedMind (4m)
- Ancient Egyptian Mummified Cats?! | Gifts for the Gods| Maddie Moate by by Maddie Moate (5m)
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!
Food offerings to the Gods were quite common in Ancient Egypt and seemed to be quite a set of food (Food of the god ancient Egypt from Egypt Tours and Travel). So, while some of the foods on that list aren’t for kids, we did zero in on the CAKE 🙂 One small slice – or a cupcake – can’t hurt 😉
And if you (or your older child might be interested), this is an interesting read too: Food of the Gods is a killer from University of Manchester.
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:
- Treasury of Egyptian Mythology: Classic Stories of Gods, Goddesses, Monsters, & Mortals (National Geographic for Kids) by Donna Jo Napoli. This is a great ‘treasure trove’ of information with illustrations and stories.
- A Child’s Introduction to Egyptology: The Mummies, Pyramids, Pharaohs, Gods, and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt (A Child’s Introduction Series) by Heather Alexander. This one has a wealth of information on several Ancient Egypt topics. For this day, we only concentrated on the Gods and Goddesses section.
- Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt: Egyptian Mythology for Kids by Morgan E. Moroney
- Ancient Egypt for Kids by Ancient Egypt for Kids. This is a website we’ve used throughout the week. There are a number of stories on Ancient Egypt mythology and stories that you can read through!
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, MYTHOLOGY, GODS, GODDESSES
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!
- Of all the Ancient Egyptian myths that you have read, which one are you most intrigued by? Why?
- Do you have a favorite God or Goddess from the Ancient Egyptians? Why is this one your favorite?
- Do any of the myths sound familiar to other myths that you have read from our other units? What are some of the similarities? What about differences?
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:
- Coloring Pages from Ancient Egyptian Gods by Arty Factory
- Egyptian Cat Mummies by Use Your Colored Pencils
- Fork Painted Black Cat for Kids by i heart arts n crafts
- Simple Craft – Black Paper Plate, Googly Eyes / Construction Paper / Markers
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!
For our STEM Activity of the Day, we opted for a simple word problem that would highlight the differences in the Ancient Egyptian Calendar vs. the calendar we use today. It was really interesting to see the differences in how they broke up their year (though still totaling to 5 days). For our ‘bonus’ question, we set them on a ‘quest’ to figure out which Gods were celebrated on the 5 extra days the Ancient Egyptians added into their year 🙂
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!
