Ancient Egypt Activities for Kids {Crafts & Printable}

Here is another installment of our History unit! This is one subject that we simply cannot bear to put on hold like we can other. This is part of our ancient Egypt activities for kids. We will share more as we complete them.

I am so excited to also announce to you that we have a wonderful giveaway in this post! Read this post to find out more on what the prize is, how long this giveaway will last and more!

As we always do, we start our lessons and every unit by reading. We read nonfiction books first and then fiction. In our Ancient Egypt Activities for Kids lesson, we read these books:

• Seeker of Knowledge: The Man Who Deciphered Egyptian Hieroglyphs (our favorite)

• Ancient Egypt

• Bill and Pete Go Down the Nile

• TombQuest – Book 4 (not age-appropriate for my children, but rather used it as a resource for the Egyptian hieroglyphs)

• National Geographic Kids Everything Ancient Egypt

• Mummies and Pyramids: A Nonfiction Companion to Magic Tree House #3: Mummies in the Morning

• Ancient Egyptians and Their Neighbors: An Activity Guide

Most importantly, we used an amazing resource for this and all of our History lessons and YOU will have the opportunity to get this or any products by Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) in the awesome giveaway we have going in this post!

We used Timeline of Classics. It is a fantastic book which was masterfully put together to save us, moms and teachers, time and extensive research, by making an awesome list of resources to use in History class. It is put together in chronological order, so it is easy to follow as History is studied. It includes a journal for students to outline and make notes of their History readings. You will absolutely love this resource! We do, for sure!

Ancient Egypt Activities for Kids: Hieroglyphs

And now, let’s go for the hands-on activities and crafts! In this lesson, we made hieroglyphs, we wrote our own names in Egyptian hieroglyphs and we made an awesome model of a sarcophagus. Take a look! It was so much fun because we got to apply what we have learned from reading our books on Egypt.

For this activity, we used: the TombQuest book #4, small (lunch size) brown bags (one per child), pencils, washable markers and my gold pendant with my name in Egyptian hieroglyphs (my mom got it for me when she went to Egypt when I was 2 years old).

We used the book to find the hieroglyphs that are used for each letter of the alphabet. We used our pencils to trace the hieroglyphs for each letter on one side of the brown bag. We figured it was the closest thing we had that resembled papyrus. We colored over the traced hieroglyphs with markers. To display them, we used double-sided tape to hang them on the wall.

To make clay ones, take a look at this (pages 116 and 117).

Ancient Egypt Activities for Kids: Sarcophagus

You will need:

• dough (see instructions below)
• pharaoh mask (print it in color, free download in this post)
• liquid glue or tacky glue
• spray paint or tempera paint (metallic silver or gold is best)
• washable paint in several colors
• paintbrushes
• Ancient Egypt mini replicas (especially the sarcophagus figurine)

Alright, I confess, this sarcophagus activity is messy, at least in the first stage. We made a dough out of flour, water, salt and small pieces of a brown bag. For the dough recipe, go here. Don’t forget to add small pieces of a brown paper bag to the dough for this activity so it can hold shape better and harden better.

Once the dough is made, divide the dough by the number of children you have and place the dough on a brown paper bag. Form the dough into an oblong oval and let it air dry for several hours (overnight is best). Spray paint it (in an open area and without the kids around) or use tempera paint to paint it all in one color and let it dry. Make sure it is dry all the way for the next steps.

Use the liquid glue or some tacky glue to stick the Pharaoh mask on the top side of the sarcophagus. You can download a free one using the box below. Using their fingers or a paintbrush, have them put a layer of the glue on top of the mask, too. Let it dry completely.

Now, give your children several paintbrushes and let them pick two of their favorite colors to paint different parts of the sarcophagus, following, sort of, the mini replica model. Let them dry all the way before handling. You can then cut the brown paper bag that hangs outside the sarcophagus. Display and/or play with them as they review what they learned about Egypt.

Aren’t these crafts fun? My children learned so much with these about Egypt. I’m sure yours will, too.

Timeline of Classics comes in two formats: PDF and spiral-bound. The spiral-bound version is 121 pages long. So much time saved for us and so much to learn for kids! It is all right here, on our fingertips! We have really enjoyed this as part of our History lessons. Give it a try!

Enter below for a chance to win a US$30 gift certificate to use on anything you want on the Institute for Excellence in Writing (www.iew.com) website. Opens Sunday, May 6th at midnight and closes on Friday, May 15th at midnight.

Open internationally. Must be 18 years or older to enter. Selected (one -1) winner will have 48 hours to respond to email notification to claim their prize before another winner is chosen. To read our terms, please read in Rafflecopter. The more entries you fill, the more the chances you have to be the winner!

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Thank you to IEW for sponsoring this giveaway!

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