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 oh-so-famous Pyramids (and the Great Sphinx)! Read on to check out a fun filled day of learning, reading, crafts, and activities all on the amazing Pyramids!
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
One can hardly think of Ancient Egypt without pyramids coming to mind! But your little ones may not be as familiar with why they were built or how. 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!)!
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*
- The Pyramids of Egypt and the Giza Plateau: Ancient Egyptian History for Kids – FreeSchool by Free School (6m)
- How Was The Sphinx Built And What Did It Look Like? | Blowing Up History by Quest TV (7m)
- Pyramids & Mummies | Ancient Egypt 1 | #68 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 could have modeled our snack of the day after what Pyramid Builders ate (The Diet of Pyramid Builders – What did they Eat? By Science Blog), we opted to go for a more interactive snack for the day…. Building pyramids out of graham crackers, sugar cubes, or marshmallows!
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:
- 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 Pyramids section.
- Where are the Great Pyramids by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler. This is part of the Where Is Series of books – great for nonfiction reading geared for older 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, PYRAMID, SPHINX, GIZA
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 build a great statue to stand with the pyramids, what would you create?
- The Sphinx is missing its nose. Imagine you time traveled to the exact time when the nose was broken – what really happened??
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:
- Great Pyramid by education.com
- How to Make an Egyptian Pyramid: Easy Papercraft Project by Felt Magnet
- Ancient Egypt Figurines
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!
- Create pyramids using blocks, cardboard, and/or any other materials you can find.
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!
