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

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