Ancient Egypt Lesson Plan

Since it is now the official middle of summer, I know there are many homeschooling parents whose thoughts are turning to homeschool planning. To that end, I thought over the next few weeks it might be helpful to someone if I were to share my general lesson plans for a few of the unit studies I have created. They will be more general topics and resources because sometimes just having an order of topics is more than half the battle. Besides, no one really wants to read a list of page numbers. It will also benefit me since I will then have these lesson plans stored somewhere electronically, because currently they are all stored in hand-written form in a spiral notebook. 

This week I will cover Ancient Egypt. I will give basic topics and any books we used outside the general ones which I will list at the end. If there are no books listed, assume that the topic was covered in these books. I will also add any special projects or movies we watched. (This was two years ago, so I'm doing my best at deciphering my notes.) Oh, and also assume that we added each date and event into our history timelines as we came to it. I don't want to have to write "added dates to timelines: under each item.

1. What is archaeology?
    - Any basic children's book on archaeology would suffice
    - Motel of Mysteries by David Macauley

2. The Nile River
    - Labeled a map of the Nile River
    - Read several children's books specifically about the Nile (there are dozens, pick the ones you like.)
    - Watched Joanna Lumley's Nile

3. Sumer
    - Labeled a map of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers

4. Date Palms
    - Drew and labeled diagram of a date palm
    - Tried different types of dates
    - Made date bars

5. First Writing

6. Cuneiform
    - The Story of Writing: Alphebets, Hieroglyphs, and Pictograms by Andrew Robinson
    - Tried our hand at writing cuneiform using clay and chopsticks (I had printed out a cuneiform alphabet)

7. Period Before the Old Kingdom

8. Old Kingdom - Mummies
    - We read a couple of children's books about mummies, again there are dozens.
    - Watched IMAX: Mummies - Secrets of the Pharoahs

9. Old Kingdom - Pyramids
    - Watched Lost Treasures of the Ancient World (Ancient Egypt portion)
    - Pyramid by David Macauley
    - Science in Ancient Egypt by Franklin Watts
    - Watched NOVA: Secrets of the Lost Empires - obelisk

10. Hammeurabi
    - We created our own codes of laws with black poster board and white chalk markers

11. Gilgamesh
    - Gilgamesh: The Hero by Geraldine McCaughrean

12. Ancient China - Terra Cotta Warriors
    - Find a book you like on these; again there are many

13. Middle Kingdom
    - Watched The Warrior Pharaohs and Pharaohs of the Sun

15. Akhenaten

14. King Tutankhamen
    - Read The Curse of King Tut's Tomb by Janey Levy
    - Watched King Tut: Forgotten Treasure

15. Senet

16. Food
    - Read pages about food and kitchens in The Pharaoh's Kitchen by Magda Mehdawy

17. Hieroglyphs
    - Read Hieroglyphs from A to Z by Peter Der Manuelian
    - Read Pepi and the Secret Names by Jill Paton Walsh
    - Tried writing in hieroglyphs

18. Ramesses II

19. Hittites, Phoenicians and Persians

20. Other Ancient Cultures - Stonehenge
    - Watched Nova: Secrets of Lost Empires - Stonehenge

Main books:
Oxford First Ancient History by Roy E. C. Burrell
Story of the World, book 1  by Susan Wise Bauer (This was the last year we used this series. It paled in comparison to the Oxford book, and the writing level was just too young for my crew at this point. Plus, there was a couple of times that I felt I had to edit on the fly. I don't remember why, but do remember being annoyed by it.)

Chapter books read aloud:
The Golden Goblet by Eloise Jarvis McGraw
Mara: Daughter of the Nile by Eloise Jarvis McGraw

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Making bias tape... otherwise known as the Sew, Mama, Sew! Giveaway

Image
( Sorry, the contest is now closed .... though you're welcome to leave a comment if you like.) [This picture has absolutely nothing to do with this post, but is here solely to give Blogger a different photo to post in the thumbnail.] It's Sew, Mama, Sew Giveaway time again.  I love bias tape.  It is so useful and so easy to use... finishing edges ... finishing seams ...  And while the pre-packaged stuff has it's place and I use it often, I really like to have patterned bias tape as well.  Enter one of my favorite little tools: the bias tape maker.  This one make 3/4 inch bias tape and I will be giving one away at the end of this post.  But first, I thought some of you might like to see what it does if you've never used one before. I don't have a rotary cutter, nice cutting mats, or even a proper cutting table (I cut-out things on my floor), so if I can do this, so can you.  Here is my admittedly quirky method. Step 1:  Lay out the fabric and fold a corner ove
Read more

An uncomfortable post

I hope it comes as no surprise to my readers that when I vote early next week I will be casting my ballot for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. Being in a blue state this feels as though it is a very little thing in the effort to bring our country back past the brink of no return . I'll be honest and say that I am feeling such stress and fear about this election that I can't listen to any news or look at social media for very long. The radio is pretty firmly set on our classical music station even though they are in the middle of a pledge drive. The pledge drive is preferable.  But for those of you who are supporting the other side, if there are any of you left who continue to visit my blog, here is what I need to say. When I drive around and see signs in people's yards supporting that man, I treat it as an early warning system. The people who live in this house are not safe for my family to be around. This is far more than a difference of opinion. That worked for all the preside
Read more

Sew, Mama, Sew! Giveaway

Image
Sew, Mama, Sew! is hosting another giveaway day , the day where many bloggers giveaway things they have made or supplies to make things or both.  It is great fun to visit a lot of blogs and try to win cool stuff.  So fun that I thought I would participate this year. I had great hopes of making a set of coordinating mother/daughter aprons.  But reality reared its ugly head and I came to terms with the fact that my time is not limitless.Instead of aprons,  I must continue to spend quality time with yards and yards of red plaid flannel.  What am I making?  Well, as I tell my children, it is the season not to ask questions... I will be able to let you know sometime after the 25th. Instead of making something, I went to my favorite thrift store and found some supplies in the form of sheets and pillowcases (some of my favorite raw material).  I'm giving away three pillowcases and one twin flat sheet. I decided to go with bright, springy colors, because if you are anything like
Read more