“A beautiful thing is never perfect.”

-Egyptian Proverb

Welcome to our Egypt homeschool unit! This page should serve as a guide for you, if you are teaching your K-5 children about ancient Egypt! If you are unfamiliar with what a unit study is, or how it works, I recommend you read my post about it here.

If you have been following us, last week we studied the Ice Age. Next up in our journey through time is to study a variety of different ancient cultures! We are moving into Ancient Egypt. (We also plan to cover ancient Greece, Rome, & China over the next few weeks). For our Egypt homeschool unit, you can view my sample schedule and list of supplies at the end of the page.

Books

If you are heading to the library, here at the recommended books that you should consider picking up for this unit. I have also included links to the read-aloud on YouTube, if the book has one. Just click the title!

The two main books we used to study Egyptian culture are the Magic Tree House book series. They have so much information packed into a couple of easy to read books! This book series is great for any kids age 1st to 3rd grade. If you have a 4th or 5th grader, I recommend having them read “Who was King Tut” or “Where were the Great Pyramids?” These are great informative books to read about Ancient Egypt that could be done as a read aloud or as assigned reading for your student. For projects, I recommend finding the book “Projects about Ancient Egypt”. My older daughter is a huge project fan, and we enjoyed following along with this book. If you can’t find that one, the book (pictured above) “Ancient Egypt Come and Discover my World” is a good substitute.

Egypt Homeschool Unit Book
  • Magic Tree House – Mummies in the Morning” by Mary Pope Osborne
  • Magic Tree House – Egypt Fact Tracker” – Mary Pope & Will Osborne
  • “Who was King Tut” by Roberta Edwards
  • “Where are the Great Pyramids?” by Dorothy Hoobler
  • The Day of Ahmed’s Secret” by Florence Perry Heide – Story geared towards a younger child (K&1st)
  • “Eyewitness Ancient Egypt” by George Hart
  • Tut’s Mummy Lost and Found” by Judy Donnelly – this is a step into reading book; it’s perfect short story for a child who reads well, to learn about King Tut on their own.
  • “Projects about Ancient Egypt” – by David C. King.
  • “Ancient Egypt – Come and Discover my World” by Amanda Martin
  • “National Geographic – A Maze Adventure Secrets of the Pyramid”

Geography

Naturally, before starting Egypt, I wanted my kids to have a clear picture of what area of the world we were discussing. One of the books from the library had a nice small map of Egypt, and I pulled up a larger map of the world online so we could see the continent of Africa. You could also pull up this map here.This was a great time review the names of the seven continents (we use this song video from YouTube), and point out that Egypt is in Africa. We also noted the Nile River, Mediterranean Sea, and Sahara Desert on the map.

The first point I wanted my kids to remember from our Egypt study was the importance of the Nile River. We read a little about the Nile and completed a reading comprehension with writing assignment that I created for my 3rd grader. You can find this in my Egypt Writing Packet on tpt. I repeated this same activity the following year (2nd & 4th grade) and was pleasantly surprised with how many facts my kids remembered!

Egyptian Culture

egypt homeschool unit fig balls

The next point we hit in our Egypt homeschool unit was Egyptian culture. We used the Magic Tree House Fact Tracker book to read about Egyptian Culture. We discussed what they wore, how they lived, what they ate, and what their language was like. For food, we used this recipe for basic Egyptian Fig Cakes. You do need a food processor in order to make this recipe. You also need almonds, walnuts, figs, honey, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Here is the recipe for Fig Balls. If you like Larabars, or a similar compact granola bars, you will enjoy these! They were very sweet, and we opted not to dip them in the honey after making them.

During our section on culture, we also practiced making Hieroglyphics. We used this chart to see some common symbols. We have a wood burner at home, so (with much supervision), my kids glued a bunch of Popsicle sticks together to make “paper” and then we used the wood burner to make carvings. You could easily paint the hieroglyphics on paper or draw them, or make them with chalk outside! As you can see, the wood burning activity also turned into making cute dogs on Popsicle sticks.

You can also draw hieroglyphics after making some imitation papyrus paper! All you need is a big bowl, water, brown paper bags, white glue, and paper towels. You dip strips of brown paper into a water and glue mixture, stick to paper towels and let it dry. Our dried in just a couple of hours. You can find the instructions for making the papyrus paper here.

Mummification, Tombs, and Pyramids

Next up was studying Egyptian burials. We continued to read in the Magic Tree House about mummification, tombs and pyramids. I had my third grader complete a writing assignment describing how Egyptian mummies are made. You can find this in my tpt packet as well as the rest of her writing assignments on Egypt.

She also made this cool mummy case from the Egyptian project book! All you need for this project is cardboard, scissors, tape or hot glue (we used hot glue), and colored pencils. The next year when we studied Egypt again, we did this project but we took this project one step further, and put a clay mummy in the case!

We read a book about King Tut and talked about what an Egyptian Pharaoh was like. We looked through the eyewitness book on treasures found in Egyptian tombs. If you have access to Disney Plus, there is a great series on there about artifacts found in ancient Egypt, called Lost Treasure of Egypt.

For pyramids, we had a ton of fun making rice crispie pyramids! These were a lot of work, but worth it. First, you cook marshmallows on the stove and add rice crispy cereal. Then, after letting the sticky mess cool a bit, we used magnet blocks to form them into pyramids! They did not turn out perfect but they were delicious. You can find the recipe for basic rice crispy treats here.

During the study of ancient Egypt, we also covered Egyptian gods and goddesses. There were a few pages in the magic tree house Fact trackers about this, or you could watch this video about the main gods and goddesses. I also had my kids complete a writing assignment as well. We did a lot of writing with this unit!

Egypt Homeschool Unit Wrap up

That’s the end of our Egypt unit! My kids loved this topic and were still looking for more!

Don’t miss our last unit on the Ice Age. Next up,Greece!

Suggested Ancient Egypt Homeschool Unit Schedule:

  • Monday: Egypt Geography & Nile River Reading Comprehension
  • Tuesday: Egyptian Culture reading in Magic Tree House fact tracker book. Egyptian Fig Cakes
  • Wednesday: Mummies, Pyramids, and Tombs reading in Fact Tracker Book. Rice Crispy Pyramids
  • Thursday: Maze Adventures Book, Egypt Timeline, Writing about Egyptian Gods
  • Friday: Egyptian Hieroglyphic Art & Mummy Craft. Egyptian Lost Treasures show on Disney +

Suggested Supplies

  • package of figs
  • walnuts
  • almonds
  • honey
  • cinnamon
  • nutmeg
  • blender or food processor
  • cardboard/cereal box
  • scissors
  • hot glue
  • air dry clay
  • colored pencils
  • rice crispies
  • vanilla extract
  • marshmallows
  • Popsicle sticks
  • wood burner or paint to paint hieroglyphics
  • brown paper bags
  • glue
  • water
  • bowl
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